The Dance of Sand and Time
by Griselda Banks
Summary: Novelization of Sands of Time. In his quest for honor and glory, a prince unleashes the terrible Sands of Time. With the aid of but an ancient dagger and a devious princess, he now pursues redemption.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the Prince of Persia franchise; this is written purely for personal non-profit pleasure.**

**Rating: T for descriptions of violence/gore (possibly unnecessary, but just in case)**

**Author's Note: It was several years ago now that I went browsing through the Prince of Persia section here, and discovered to my astonishment that no one had yet written a novelization of Sands of Time. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time has always stood out to me as an excellent example of good storytelling, so to someone like me a novelization always seemed like a no-brainer. "Well, then," I said to myself, "I'll just have to write one myself, won't I? It's not even that long of a game; I beat it in two weeks my first time through. So it should be easy to write!"**

**Famous last words. It's taken me an insanely long amount of time to write this deceptively short story, but that has less to do with the actual length or complexity of the original story, and more to do with my own resolve to push myself as hard as I could with this. I've written novelizations before, but I've always felt that they never quite reached the potential those stories offered, and that I could have done better but I just couldn't be bothered to try. So I came at this novelization with the resolve to make this the very best I could, to make this a story that anyone can read and enjoy, whether they've played the game before or not.**

**And this story is well worth the effort, if you ask me. At first glance, it's very simple and straightforward, but there are many understated emotions and themes running through the whole thing that begin to reveal themselves only gradually. The twists and turns of the story are pulled off to near-perfection, and all throughout you feel as though you were listening to someone actually tell you a story. I've always thought that was a very unique way to handle a story in a video game. I'll also admit that I am very partial to the Middle East. I love the clothing, the music, the languages, the stories they tell. From the first, I fell in love with Sands of Time because it seemed to capture the very essence of everything I love about the Middle East. Everything from the graceful fighting style to the music that mingles traditional sounds with modern rock served to make this one of my favorite games of all time.**

**I've learned more than I ever dreamed I could while writing this novelization. I feel that my writing has improved, as I strive to match it to the Prince's voice. I also feel that I've learned more about what a novelization should be. I know this game as well as probably anybody else around, as I've played it all the way through five times and have taken extensive notes and gone over those notes plenty of times, yet I often realized as I wrote that simply putting down everything exactly as it occurs in the game would make for a very boring read. Thus, I've altered things in many places – nothing to really change the story, but enough for the seasoned player to notice – such as architecture, traps, and conversations. I've added in some of my own ideas, taken out some extraneous details, and tried to spice things up as well as I can. I've also paid particular attention to the battles, since that has always been one of the highlights of the game for me, and since battles are often the weak points in my stories. I even took the liberty of slipping in a few tidbits of conversation from Two Thrones and the movie, and several references to Persian culture that don't exist in the actual game.**

**I hope you will enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it (even though I wrestled with the words and agonized over every paragraph). I've worked on this as hard as I can, but I know there are most definitely improvements still to be made. I would love to hear any comments you have about this novelization, good or bad! (Oh, and just so you know, I will _not_ be writing novelizations of the sequels.)**

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**THE DANCE OF SAND AND TIME**

**Chapter One**

_Thunder rumbles. Soft rain patters among the palm trees, falling from misty clouds obscuring the dark Indian sky. Night sounds drift about like ghostly remains of the past. Suddenly pushed aside, the great wide leaves of palm trees swing wildly in the wake of a swift shadow. Clouds of dust slowly settle back onto the hard soil, quickly turning to mud as the rain falls harder. An unseen stream trickles by softly in the darkness. Sand, sand, always sand underfoot, sucking at the feet that run over it. Cool marble pillars glisten as the moon slips briefly out of the storm clouds. Soft, gauzy curtains swirl in the warm night breeze. The thick scent of oils and perfumes curls lazily through the air, mingling with the smell of wet earth. A lone shadow looms in the darkness beyond the curtains, sweeping them aside with one determined thrust._

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Most people think time is like a river that flows swift and sure in one direction. But I have seen the face of time, and I can tell you they are wrong. Time is an ocean in a storm. Time is a dance, folding back over itself as the steps are repeated again and again and again. The same, yet different each time. Time is a desert, a mountain of sand stretching out to every horizon, endless and always shifting, conforming to the steps you make in it, yet always slipping back and falling into the holes, covering up your tracks until even you cannot remember from which direction you came. You may wonder who I am, and why I say this. Sit down, and I will tell you a tale like none that you have ever heard. I would ask that you make no interruption, for the tale is long indeed, and I have but a short time in which to tell you.

Know first that I am the son of Shahraman, a mighty king of Persia. On our way to Azad with a small company of men, we passed through India. My father did not come to India to wage war, but neither did he turn away from it, when he saw a chance to win honor and glory. A traitor in the Maharajah's palace offered my father his aid in return for a share of the spoils. Thus was a brave and noble king tempted into a grievous error.

The rain of the night had ceased, leaving the morning fresh and cool, not yet burned by the hot sun above. Raindrops mingled with dewdrops, beading the branches of trees. Everything seemed sharp and clear that morning, and the fresh air invigorated me. This was to be my first battle, the first time I would fight by my father's side. As his youngest son, I had always been forced to watch my father and older brothers ride away to battle, then return victorious with many tales of their brave deeds. But finally, on this day, I would make my father proud.

I stood at my father's right hand as he stood on the crest of a hill, surrounded by our mighty army and gazing across the lush plain at the mighty palace of the Maharajah of India. It was as glorious as our own palace, if not more so. Towers pierced the reddening sky, rising from thick stone walls. Massive wooden gates, strengthened with iron, mocked any attempt to assail them, while dozens of guards patrolled the parapets. Then my eyes lit up as I saw a flaming arrow shoot high into the sky – the signal!

"Now, my son!" my father cried, raising his sword high into the air and sweeping it towards the Maharajah's castle. We urged our horses to a gallop at the head of our advancing army, the newly-risen sun glistening off helmets and sword tips. As we swept down the hill, the Maharajah's forces rushed out to meet us, but they were easily overwhelmed. I felt pride swell in my chest as I watched my father's troops break through their ranks all around me and make for the main gate. Our friend the traitor had assured us he would see to it personally that it stood open and ready for our attack.

I held my sword ready, eager to win some honor for myself, but my father motioned me onward, past the press of footmen fighting around the main gate. Flaming boulders soared through the air, flying from catapults on both sides, as we galloped into the courtyard. Confusion raged throughout the whole courtyard, as fires broke out and soldiers fought desperately. My father reined in his horse and called out to someone behind me.

I turned in my saddle to see an old man striding up to us, to all appearances unaware of the fighting around him, as if he was merely taking his regular stroll about the palace courtyard. The man had a pointed grey beard, and the red spot upon his forehead denounced him as an Indian. He wore deep red robes and a turban the color of dried blood, and leaned upon a smooth wooden staff carved in the likeness of a cobra. After a moment, I realized this was the traitor to the Maharajah that my father had spoken of.

"Your Majesty," the old man said when he drew near to my father. "I trust you'll remember your promise. The Maharajah's treasure holds lie within." He gestured grandly to a great stone arch behind him.

Eager and impatient, I spurred my horse towards the arch before either of the men had a chance to stop me. This could be my chance to prove my worth to my father, and I would not pass it up. Yet as I neared the archway, a flaming boulder smashed into the stonework above my head and the archway began to crumble and fall. I urged my horse to run faster, but even so I could see that I would not make it. The archway quickly filled with rubble, blocking the way onward. Abandoning the horse that had been a gift from my eldest brother, I leapt from the saddle, vaulting myself through the arch just as the rest of the wall collapsed, cutting myself off from my father and our ally. I fell to the ground, momentarily stunned, but soon picked myself back up, ready to face the battle on my own.

Already, the walls of this magnificent palace bore gaping holes from our assault, and fire raged in many places, creating a thick cloud of smoke that dimmed the rising sun. Even as the golden disk rose higher in the sky, men fell with anguished cries as our army cut through them. Do you think I felt regret as I gazed upon the destruction we had wrought, or at least humility at the speed with which a world can be transformed from a good one into a hell? If you think so you are mistaken. From that time, my only thought was the honor and glory I would bring my father as I fought in my first battle. I started towards a battalion of my father's men, hard at work with a battering ram against a gate leading farther into the palace. But I had not taken more than two steps when a flaming boulder fell from the sky, crushing the men in one fell blow. The gate caught fire, and I was forced to retreat.

The rubble of the fallen archway was easy enough to climb, and I made my way up it to one of the parapets, now devoid of soldiers. Crouching down so as not to be a target to my own troops, I hurried along the top of the wall towards the sound of clashing swords – towards the sound of glory. Soon I came to a tower, passing through it to emerge onto a stone balcony. No sooner had I stepped through the doorway than a loud cry met my ears.

A man in a green turban – one of the Maharajah's guards – rushed towards me, spear in hand. At last, my first real battle with lives at stake, instead of mock battles on the training grounds! I should have been pleased, but as it was I barely had time to draw my blade from the sheath on my back. The man thrust forth his spear, and the sharp point whistled past my ear as I whirled out of reach with the skill many years of training had taught me. I jabbed my sword into the spearman's belly with a sickening crunch, and his blood fell with a splat upon the ground. The only sound that issued from my enemy's throat was a weak gurgle, then he fell at my feet, dead.

I stood staring at his corpse for I know not how long. You must understand that this was my first kill, and I was not yet used to the reality of death. I could hardly believe what my eyes were telling me: that I had ended this man's life, had caused the red flow that now stained the stones beneath my feet.

A nearby explosion shook me from my reverie, and after wiping my sword on the dead man's clothes, I mounted a ladder resting against one wall. From this higher vantage point, I could see the battle raging below me on all sides, man pitted against fellow man in the epic dance of battle. The pounding of the catapults' barrage against the castle punctuated the ever-present clash of steel and cries of dying men. Battle, I discovered, was just as glorious as I had always imagined, yet it was frightening as well. I glanced down at my sword, imagining I could still see the blood upon it, then hastily replaced it in its sheath.

Still rather shaken by my first kill, I entered another tower room and was relieved to find a full pitcher of water waiting for the guards who normally inhabited this tower. I let the cool, refreshing liquid slide down my throat, attempting to push aside thoughts of how it would feel to have blood seeping up my throat instead as my life faded away. Many men that day sought to win honor and glory, that their king might say to them, as Khosrau said to Rustam: _"You are the noblest of my warriors."_ From the moment my sword tasted blood, I knew this would not be my way. I would win my father's praise not by killing, but by being the first to find the Maharajah's treasure hold...and the wonders that lay within.

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**Note: Khosrau was a mighty king of Persian legend, and Rustam (also known as Rustem) was his greatest warrior.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Back outside the tower, I clambered down a heap of rubble to a small side door, but when I approached it two Indian guards leapt out at me from the shadows. Both wielded curving swords like my own, and for several minutes I was locked in combat with them. It seemed that I danced around them for hours, knocking their swords away and darting in for an attack when I saw my chance, only to have my every blow parried. Seeing this, I feinted to one side, and when the first guard moved to block me yet again, I changed directions and slammed my sword straight into his heart. As my back was turned, the second guard very nearly impaled me, his sword catching my wrist as I turned hastily away. It drew a thin line of blood, but that was nothing compared to the torrent I drew from him a moment later, my blade cutting all the way through his unarmored chest.

A bitter taste twisted my mouth as I stared down at the two new corpses I had just made, but there was nothing I could do except move on. Passing through the door, I found myself on a wooden balcony running across to the wall opposite. No sooner had I set my foot on it than a flaming boulder soared through the air to smash into the balcony, opening a large gap at my feet. Yet I am a prince of Persia, trained in all manner of athletic skills from my childhood. Thus, it was a small matter for me to start forward and run along the stones of the wall at the side of the gap, dropping down lightly on the other side.

I met little resistance as I continued along the walls of the palace, but I could see the battle raging in courtyards far below. For the most part, my father's armies overran those of the Maharajah, though in other courtyards I could plainly see that the Indian army held the advantage. I wondered, as I cut down what few sentries crossed my path, where my father was at that moment, and whether he had found another way to the treasure holds. Soon, however, those thoughts fled my mind in the face of my excitement at finding I grew closer to my goal.

Leaping through another great hole in a wall that our catapults had created, I found myself in a cool room where four Indian guards stood. One let out a cry when he saw me in the hole, and soon all four of them charged towards me, weapons drawn. Rolling to the side to avoid being forced into a corner, I struck out at one of the guards' feet. The guard fell with a cry as I rolled to my feet once more. The others were still too close for safety, however, so I used a trick the royal trainer had taught me. Putting my hands on one of the guards' shoulders, I flipped over him and thrust my blade into his back while he still stumbled from my weight. Tearing my sword from his back, I slashed it across another guard's chest in the same movement. Then I whirled around, parrying the last guard's desperate attacks until I found an opening and sent him sprawling onto the floor with a bloody wound in his stomach.

I stood, trying to catch my breath, in the center of the mosaic of blood and death that I had created. Even with my decision to gain honor by recovering treasure rather than killing, here I found myself with still more blood on my hands. I wondered if my brothers, who always bragged about how many they had killed in their exploits, had ever stood amongst the bodies as I did and felt sickened by what they had done. I wondered if perhaps they had become numb to that shock after years of war. Would I be the same? That was not what I wanted...but looking back on it now, perhaps I was foolish to hope that I could escape such a fate.

I staggered over to a wall, sickened by what I had done, and threw out a hand to steady myself against the stone. When my fingers touched the green tapestries that covered the wall, I discovered they concealed a hidden doorway, which led to a series of cold underground passages. The air grew colder and colder as I went along, and soon water began to drip down from the ceiling and trickle down the walls. Cobwebs took the place of tapestries, and everything was covered with such grime and dust that it was obvious this passage was no longer used. Even so, I saw faded murals on the walls depicting an Indian legend I was unaware of, and several statues of Indian gods. There were no guards in these hallways, and I could no longer hear even the pounding of the catapults' flaming projectiles. The silence soon became oppressive, and I grew increasingly aware of the feeling that someone was watching me. I told myself it was merely the empty eyes of the statues, but I could not quite shake off that feeling.

At length, I stepped through another doorway adorned with silk tapestries, and found myself in a large stone vault. After standing in the doorway for a moment, the realization hit me in full: this was my goal. I stood upon one of several stone balconies along the walls of the room, my eyes instantly drawn to the far end of the chamber, where an enormous hourglass, taller than two men stacked one on top of the other, loomed in the darkness. This hourglass was filled with sands that glowed with a light all their own, a light that seemed to shimmer and dance as the sands slowly dropped from the upper chamber to the lower one. I knew what the hourglass contained; I had heard it spoken of in voices filled with awe and disbelief: the Sands of Time. I was unsure as to the exact nature of the Sands, or what purpose they served, but the Sands were a legend of themselves. My father would gain much glory in possessing them. Yet I could hardly drag the Hourglass along all by myself, so I searched for a smaller treasure.

I noticed a small window above the Hourglass, through which shone a bluish light – contrasting sharply with the golden glow of the Sands. Curious, I ran along the wall from the balcony where I stood to the corner, ignoring the empty space beneath me as I pushed off the wall with my feet and leapt towards a ledge directly above the Hourglass. The blue light shone through the window before me, and I shielded my eyes with one hand, squinting into the light. And there it lay – just out of reach beyond the tiny window: the Dagger of Time. In every legend of the Sands of Time, the Dagger was sure to be mentioned as well. This was a treasure I could carry with pride as a token of our victory. If I could only get into that room back there...

The Indian Maharajah's treasure vault was symmetrical, and another doorway stood directly across from the one through which I had entered. I ran across the wall to it, then pushed past its veil of tapestries to find myself in another cold, damp passageway. Again I swept through the corridors like a ghost, feeling like an intruder entering a secret mausoleum. Time became immaterial, yet ironically it was the Dagger of Time that drew me on. At long last, I stepped from the cold passageways into an immense, abandoned hall. Great stone pillars held up the roof, and dust coated everything. Piles of gold and treasure were heaped up in mountains, completing the image of the long-forgotten tomb of a mighty king. Turning around, I saw an enormous statue of the god Ganesha, rising up almost to the ceiling. Atop the elephant-man's flat head, a point of bluish light shone steadily, and my heart lifted.

The next challenge would be climbing up onto the statue's head. There were handholds enough that I could climb up to the statue's shoulder, but from there on up the stone of the statue's large ear was smooth and sheer. I hesitated a moment, but then noticed that the wall of the hall was very close to the statue's head. Running forward with enough momentum to run up the wall a short distance, I pushed myself away from the side of the statue's head to the wall, then continued to jump from wall to wall in a zigzag motion that brought me gradually to the top of the statue's head.

I landed on the statue's flat head and paused a moment to catch my breath, then turned towards the small pedestal in the middle of the statue's head. From a hole far away in the ceiling, light pooled around a small dagger on the pedestal. The blade was pale and slightly curved, the handle hollow and filled with glowing sand. Tiny jewels gleamed on the hilt, sparkling in the light. I carefully picked up the Dagger with both hands, gazing in wonder at the sand within it. Who would make a dagger with sand in it? As I looked closer, I noticed a small knob just above the handle, engraved with the symbol of a moon and seeming to glow of its own accord. I held the Dagger in my hand and pressed the knob with my thumb, wondering what it was for.

Suddenly, several things seemed to happen all at once. The Dagger suddenly grew warm in my hand, and the sand in the handle glowed brighter than ever. The stones shook beneath my feet, and I looked up to find a large piece of the ceiling falling down, about to crush me. Yet even as I watched with horror, the large piece of stone began to move back upwards through the air. Confused, I stepped backwards just as I released the knob, and the stone crashed down onto the pedestal, right where I had been standing a moment before. I looked with wonder at the Dagger, and realized that the hilt was slightly lighter than before, the amount of sand in the hilt slightly less. I did not know what had happened, but it was obvious the Dagger possessed some magic power, so with a smile of pleasure, I exchanged it for the dagger that hung at my belt. Then I began to make my way back to the treasure vault.

As I ran through the hallways that had led me there, I could feel the stones shaking beneath my feet. It seemed my father's constant barrage had made the palace unstable, on the verge of collapse. I glanced at the walls nervously as I ran, but in doing so I did not see the cracks in the floor until my feet pounded on them and the floor gave way beneath me. Even as I plunged downward, tumbling with the stone, I remembered the stone that had nearly crushed me when I took the Dagger from its place. In desperation, I touched the switch on the handle of the Dagger, and found myself floating back upwards as the stones rose and fitted back together. I held my finger on the switch until my feet were a safe distance from the cracked floor, then let go. The Dagger felt still lighter in my hand as time suddenly surged forwards once more, the floor collapsing before me as I stood at the edge of the cracks.

For several breathless moments, I could only stand staring between the Dagger in my hand and the crumbled stone that had nearly ended my story. I could prevent my own death. I could control time itself. Truly, this was a marvelous treasure indeed. At last I shook my head, as tremors still shook the palace. The crumbling halls of a defeated Maharajah were no place to stand and contemplate what I had found. Gripping the Dagger tightly in my hand, I hurried back the way I had come.

At length I rushed from the cold stone passageways into the treasure vault, which bustled with activity. Several of my father's men strained at ropes tied to the giant Hourglass, while others carried off the Maharajah's lesser treasures. Yet even the least of these were more magnificent than anything ever found in my father's palace. My father stood in the center of the room, overseeing it all. I hurried up to him, dropped to one knee, and proffered the Dagger. "Father," I said eagerly, "I have brought us honor and glory."

My father smiled to see me, yet before he could reply the Maharajah's traitorous vizier approached, leaning heavily on his snake-shaped staff. "Your Majesty," he said in oily tones, "you promised me my choice of the former Maharajah's treasures." His teeth shone yellow as he smiled unpleasantly at me. "I would like that dagger."

I unconsciously drew back; there was something in the vizier's smile, something in the glitter of his eyes unclouded by age, that put me on my guard. I also knew the power of the Dagger, and was loth to give it up.

My father, it seemed, noticed none of this, for he laughed and said, "Surely you won't deny the lad a souvenir of his first battle?" Taking the vizier's agreement as a matter of course, he waved his hand dismissively and continued, "You may have your choice of the former Maharajah's other treasures. Except that hourglass," he added, as he turned to survey the mighty glowing treasure. "It will make a fine gift for the sultan of Azad when we pass through his city."

I glanced over at the vizier and noticed that he was coughing violently into a handkerchief, his face twisted with either pain or rage, his eyes glittering at my father's back. His coughs were drowned out by the shouts of my father's men all about, but I noticed when he drew the handkerchief away that it was spotted with blood.

My father was oblivious to this, however; he still mused in a soft voice what gifts would be suitable for the sultan. "Perhaps some exotic animals for his menagerie, and some slaves, naturally, yes – I shall choose them myself." Then he raised his voice for all to hear and announced, "I want no animals or maidens harmed until _I_ give the order. Let it be known: King Shahraman is merciful in victory."

I watched my father, pride swelling in my chest. My father was the model of a king – merciful, honorable, yet at the same time firm. I wished to be exactly the same. I would become an honorable man whom everyone respected, and I would achieve glory though I would never become king after my father. That day, I thought I had taken the first step down that path.

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**Note: Ganesha is an Indian god known as the Remover of Obstacles.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Before the sun was past its zenith, our company set out from the ruined palace of the former Maharajah. I rode a newly-captured horse, since my own had been killed by the crumbling archway in the Maharajah's palace. Sitting atop our horses on a dune, my father and I watched the troops march by. The soldiers and carts bearing treasures and slave girls trailed out in a long line through the steaming dunes, marching slowly but steadily. When one of the carts carrying our spoils passed us, my gaze was drawn especially to one of the slave girls. She did not duck her head in defeated shame, but held it high. Her eyes met mine for one brief instant, the fire of her gaze burning hotter than the blazing desert sun. I frowned after her, then forgot her as the vizier rode up next to my father. He seemed to have recovered from his disappointment at being denied his choice of the treasure, but he still gazed at me almost hungrily.

There is an old proverb that says, "Trust not a man who has betrayed his master, nor take him into your own service, lest he betray you, too." I learned the truth of this to my sorrow the day we finally arrived in Azad as the sultan's honored guests. After washing away the dust of the road, my father and his entourage entered the hall where the sultan waited to receive us. The sultan was a short, round man with cheerfully rosy cheeks. He embraced my father like a brother, crying out, "Welcome! You bring joy and honor to my poor and humble dwelling. If only you had given me time to prepare a proper welcome!" This was merely courtesy; I had seen but a glimpse of the glory of Azad, and I could already see that the sultan's palace was every bit as beautiful as I had always dreamed. The hall in which we stood bore brilliantly colored mosaics on ceiling and floor, and swirling pillars lined the length of the hall, leading up to the dais where the sultan's solid gold throne loomed above us all.

"The glories of Azad are famed throughout the world," my father said grandly as he led the sultan towards the gifts the soldiers had brought in at the far end of the throne room. "One cannot improve on perfection. And yet, I hope that in your palace there may still be room for a few paltry gifts from India."

At a gesture, a dozen of the finest slave girls we had captured stepped forward and bowed before their new master. As the sultan's eyes glittered with a childlike anticipation, my father turned to the cages, concealed beneath heavy cloths. The sultan gave a small start as the cloths fell away and tigers threw themselves against the strong iron bars with ferocious roars. In smaller cages farther along, monkeys and exotic birds chattered and chirped. The sultan shivered pleasurably, his round face beaming with wonder. "Magnificent specimens," he murmured, gazing at the brilliantly-colored tail feathers of a peacock. "And so many gifts! I am quite speechless!"

I saw a twinkle in my father's eye that spoke of how pleased he was to bring forth such a reaction from such a mighty sultan. "Ah, the best is yet to come! I give you...the Sands of Time!"

At a signal, two of my father's men pulled off the large piece of velvet that obscured the Hourglass from view. The cloth fell to the floor, and the sands within the Hourglass shone out for all to see. My father cried triumphantly, "May the friendship between our kingdoms endure as long as time itself."

The sultan approached the Hourglass, awe written on his face. As sultan, he had surely seen the most magnificent treasures this world has to offer. Yet even a sultan must stand in awe when faced with the very Sands of Time. "The sand..." he murmured. "Why does it glow?"

My father visibly searched for an answer, but I could see he had not the slightest inkling, and color began to rise in his cheeks.

The vizier stepped forward at that moment. "Your Excellency, if I may." He bowed slightly as the sultan eagerly turned to face him, and continued. "Inside the Hourglass is a marvel that no living man has seen. Alas, only the Dagger can unlock the Sands of Time, and it belongs to a greater one than I: a young prince, dearer to his father than all the wealth of India." He turned to me and held out an inviting hand. "Perhaps he would oblige?"

I glanced around at the expectant faces all around me. Even the guards and slave girls seemed eager to see what wonders the Hourglass contained. I must confess that an irrepressible curiosity rose up within me as well. I had seen with my own eyes how the Dagger could reverse time and alter deadly events. If the Dagger alone were so powerful, the Hourglass must contain power such as could scarcely be imagined! I stepped forward, pulling the Dagger from its sheath. As I reached the Hourglass, I noticed a slot in the narrow middle of the glass where the Dagger was apparently meant to be inserted. Yet even as I slid the point of the Dagger into this narrow opening, I heard a commotion behind me. I turned my head to see one of the Indian slave girls struggling against her guards. "No!" she cried. "Stop! No!"

But it was already too late. The Dagger sank in up to the hilt, and for a moment time seemed to halt in its tracks. A column of blinding white light pierced down from the heavens and cascaded over the Hourglass, and suddenly all the sand it contained began to spill out. I wrenched the Dagger back out, but the damage was already done. Clouds of sand filled the room, billowing through the air and twisting around people's legs like fog blown by an invisible wind.

"Is it meant to do this?" the sultan asked fearfully, shrinking away from the billowing clouds of sand.

My father cried out as the sand began coiling around his body. He strove to beat it away with his sword, but weapons were no use against this danger.

Pandemonium reigned throughout the room. Everyone was screaming, rushing around, struggling against unseen enemies. And over all the other sounds, that of the sand pouring out of the Hourglass. I glanced around wildly in horror as the sand spread, twisting around people's bodies like the tentacles of some dreadful monster. It swirled into screaming mouths, suffocating them. Yet an even greater horror unfolded right before my eyes. The people were...changing. Their skin took on the greyish cast of corpses, and their eyes glowed with an unnatural golden light, the very hue of the sands in the Hourglass. Their terrified screams turned into bestial roars as great tremors shook the entire palace by its very foundations, sending down a rain of dust and falling stones.

I stood rooted to the floor, unable to do anything but stare in horror at this nightmare forming around me. I watched as the sultan, the slave girls, the soldiers, even my own father, succumbed to the power of the sand. Everyone I knew transformed into hideous, mutated monsters before my very eyes. Yet I stood right beside the Hourglass, the Dagger of Time in my hand, untouched by a single grain of sand.

My eyes were drawn to the one other person who seemed unaffected by the sands: the vizier. He stood among the writhing forms and swirling sand, raised his cobra-shaped staff, and cried out an incantation. At his words, the piles of sand around the room blew in all directions more fiercely than ever, but it did not seem to help the creatures. The whole palace shook like a giant in his death throes, pillars and pieces of the ceiling crumbling down all around me.

Through the clouds of dust and sand, the vizier emerged, stalking towards me like a predator. "Give me the Dagger," he called over the rumblings and garbled cries.

"No!" I held the Dagger close, backing away warily. A chill gripped my heart as our eyes met, and I felt that I could not trust him. The vizier had known all about the Sands of Time. He had told me to unlock them. Surely he had known this would happen?

"You have unleashed the Sands of Time," he continued, striding calmly towards me. A horribly triumphant light gleamed in his eyes, as if to say, _Everything has gone according to plan._ "You have brought this horror upon us, but I can undo what you have done."

His words struck my heart, for I knew he was right: my actions had unleashed this cataclysm. Feeling that I should not give him what he sought, I backed into an archway leading out of the throne room. The ceiling directly overhead began to crumble; I turned and threw myself headlong through the archway as it was completely blocked, leaving the deceitful vizier behind me.

I found myself in a magnificent hall off the side of the throne room, lined with fluted pillars holding up ornate balconies. A mosaic worked in gold and sapphire led down the length of the hall to a delicate ivory fountain which tinkled and flashed before a massive glass window. But there was no time to appreciate any of this magnificence. Sand had already swept through this room, turning everyone in the room into hideous sand creatures. All the creatures in the room chased after one of the servant girls we had captured in India. To my astonishment, she was as untouched by the sands as I, her red servant's garb immaculate. Fleeing for her life through a small doorway to the side, she slammed a metal gate shut behind her. The sand creatures howled in rage as she escaped their grasp, then turned their rancor upon me. Swiftly I pulled out my sword, horror gripping me as they shuffled forward on their clumsy feet. Some had once been palace guards, I saw; others servants still in their red turbans.

Fighting for my life, I used every ounce of skill my teachers had pounded into me, parrying the creatures' attacks with my sword, dodging, twisting, dancing, slicing open their grey, rotting skin. At first it seemed more and more of these monstrous creatures kept approaching to replace their dead comrades, but gradually I realized that when I thrust one onto the floor, the sand in its body would glow from the wounds I had inflicted, stopping up the wounds and reanimating the body. Each time I struck them down, they rose to fight again.

This realization sapped the strength from me. Would they never die? At last one creature managed to knock my sword from my hand, and in desperation I struck out with the Dagger. As soon as the Dagger connected with the creature's face, the blade glowed with a golden light. The hilt became heavier as the power of the Dagger sucked sand from the creature's body, which fell to the floor at last, lifeless. Now no glow shone from the corpse. But I had no time to marvel at this, for the others were converging on me. Flipping backward to take up my sword once again, I waited for the next creature to draw closer, and I thrust the Dagger into his chest. Just as before, the Dagger pulled all the sand from the creature's body and left it lifeless. I saw that only by taking the sands that possessed them into my Dagger could I free them from their monstrous existence.

In this manner, I destroyed all the creatures in the room. With a relieved sigh, I sheathed my blades and turned to the door where the servant girl had escaped. To my surprise, she stood in the doorway, watching me with wide, frightened eyes. Yet even as I stepped forward to hail her, the earth gave another thunderous shake. The girl fled with her arms over her head as enormous blocks fell from the ceiling, blocking the gate.

Suddenly I grew aware of a rushing sound behind me, and whirled around, hand already flying to my sword. All the stray sand in the room, from piles of dust in the corner to the creatures' rapidly dissolving corpses, rushed towards me. The cloud of sand swirled up my legs, spinning around my body in a small whirlwind. I watched the sand in terror and attempted to break free, but the sand clutched at my legs and I could not move. Would this be my undoing? Would I go the same way as all the others, overpowered by these sands I had released?

The sand swirled over my head, and a thousand spectral images flashed before my eyes. I saw myself running through the halls of this palace, fighting against creatures that neither lived nor died, chasing after an elusive prize that lay just out of my grasp. I know not whether this was a dream or a waking vision, but when I next opened my eyes, I found myself lying upon the floor, covered with a fine sprinkling of sand. Fearing what I would see, I raised my hands before my face, but the skin had not turned pale, and I could discern no signs of the horrifying mutation on my body. I pushed myself to my feet and brushed myself off, trembling as with a chill, though sweat poured down my face.

What had happened? I felt as though I had survived a brush with death – no, a fate much worse than death. I would have paced these halls, not knowing myself, existing only to kill any living being who ventured into this palace. I found the Dagger clutched tightly in my hand, and as I looked down at the sands glowing gently within its hollow hilt, I knew with certainty that this blade, which could harness the Sands of Time, had saved me.

I can see it by the look in your eye: You think me mad. You think my story impossible. Well, perhaps I am mad. Who would not be driven insane by horrors such as I have lived? But I assure you, every word is true.

I crossed over to the door behind which the servant girl had disappeared, and discovered that the rubble falling from the ceiling had bent the metal and left a gap just large enough for me to squeeze through. When with some difficulty I emerged on the other side, I looked up to find the girl standing at the top of a flight of stairs, watching me silently. The moment our eyes connected, she turned heel and fled down the hallway. I called out to her, but even as I hastened to follow, part of the ceiling collapsed before me, blocking off the hallway she had escaped into.

Forced to make my way in the other direction down the hallway, I found myself in the section of the palace the sultan's servants had shown us when we first arrived. The guest rooms where my father, all our entourage, and I should have passed the night lay cold and silent. Chairs and tables had been overturned in the tremors that shook the entire palace, and bowls of fruit and decanters of wine lay broken on the floor, their contents spilled across the sandy floor. The soft beds stood as cold as stones, their curtains hanging limp and covered with dust as though this place had gone long unused. The Sands of Time had swept through, stealing life and warmth from everything they touched. And I, who had unleashed this cataclysm, had been spared. Were there others hiding in fear among the ruins like me, who yet clung to life? It did not seem so.

As I stood in one of the grand rooms, looking up at the magnificent curtained bed, I heard the sound of a foot crunching suddenly on the grit that covered once-spotless floors. Whirling around, I raced to the doorway through which I thought I had heard the sound, and emerged into a hallway just in time to see a red skirt whip around the corner. "Stop!" I cried, racing after her. "I won't hurt you!" My voice shook more rubble from its precarious hold on the ceiling, and with a cloud of dust my way was blocked once more. I attempted to push one of the stones out of the way, but desisted when a hail of small stones cascaded onto my head.

Had I really seen the servant girl? Or had my senses given way under the burden of horrors too great to bear, and conjured up a phantom? Either way, I could not rest until I found her again. Even if she was but a figment of my own addled mind, she was the only living being in this palace other than the vizier, assuming he had not perished in the throne room. I did not care who she was; the prospect of wandering these cold, empty halls alone became suddenly unbearable to me. Another human presence, even if it was only a skittish servant girl who followed me around too frightened to say a word, would lend a warmth to this cold, quiet grave.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

I hurried through several guest rooms, trying to head in a direction parallel to the hallway the servant girl had disappeared into. This proved difficult, for sections of the walls had collapsed, forcing me to choose a different route. As I entered the largest of the guest rooms, where my father would most likely have slept, I saw through a jagged hole in one wall the very hallway I had been aiming for. I strode towards it eagerly, but after no more than two steps I heard a sound that turned my blood cold.

With low groans and guttural cries, several sand creatures emerged from doorways and burst out from behind thick curtains. From the plain garments that hung loosely from their emaciated limbs, most of these seemed to have been mere servants in life, but many of them had found knives or jagged stones that would serve as deadly weapons in their hands. Drawing forth my own weapons, I warily backed away, knowing how fiercely they could fight with the sand inside them.

The creatures shuffled towards me with eager moans. I traded a few blows with the nearest one, until I saw an opening and jabbed my Dagger into his chest. Yet even as the Dagger sucked all the sand from its body, another creature attacked from behind. As I dodged from its attack, my foot landed in a puddle of spilled wine and slid out from under me. The nearest sand creature lurched forward, roaring eagerly, as I attempted to regain my balance and strike at it at the same time.

As I slipped and began to fall, the Dagger sank into the sand creature's dead flesh and twisted. To my astonishment, the sand creature froze in place, its greyish skin turning the color of wet sand. Unnerved, I jerked the Dagger from its body and swiped at it with my sword instead; at the touch of metal, the creature's body disintegrated and became nothing but a mound of sand. The two remaining creatures had lumbered upon me by this time, but when I tried the same technique on them, they too froze in their tracks and were swiftly turned to sand.

I had unintentionally discovered that the Dagger held the power to stop time. Not for me, but for the enemy I struck. I began to see why the vizier wanted it so badly that, to grasp it in his long-nailed hands, he was willing to betray not only the Maharajah, but also my father. Just as in ancient times Garsivaz betrayed Afrasiyab and Saiawush.

Even as I attempted to regain my breath, all the sand from the fallen creatures began to rush towards me, swirling around me at it had before. The sand lying in idle piles in the corners of the room blew to join the rest of the sand as well. I turned and tried to flee, but the sand howled towards me and wrapped me in a golden cocoon, the rushing grains becoming images speeding past my eyes. I saw myself running through more empty hallways, then through a small courtyard. I saw myself rushing headlong into sharp iron spikes that suddenly appeared in the wall, traps set off by secret tiles in the floor. I saw myself impaled upon a scimitar that struck up from the ground. And I saw myself running through more hallways, but this time I was not alone, for I saw the servant girl running at my side, a hunter's bow in hand. Then the sand seemed to trickle away, and I opened my eyes to find myself on the hard stone floor of the bed chamber.

Pushing myself up trembling from the ground, I stared around wildly, half-expecting to see traps darting towards me from the walls. The only sound I could hear was my heart pounding in my ears, slowly fading away as I forced myself to remain calm. What I had seen was but a dream, was it not? I found a little wine remaining in a broken pitcher, and wet my parched throat with it before continuing on my way.

The halls were deathly silent as I pressed onwards. I had little hope of catching up with that servant girl again, if she truly existed beyond my frenzied imagination. I tried calling out several times, but my voice only echoed off deaf walls and exacerbated my feeling of loneliness. Wandering those halls, I felt as though I were the only human in all Persia. I began to run, as if by doing so I could escape the cold emptiness within me.

Suddenly a hand reached out and grasped my arm, jerking me into a small room off the hallway and slamming the door behind me. Reacting with alarm, I had nearly drawn my sword before I realized the hand was warm and alive, nothing like the clammy, corpse-like flesh of those touched by the sands. In the light of the torches burning on the walls, I saw standing before me the servant girl I had been chasing all this time. She wore the customary, close-fitting red garb of a servant girl, and I could see that her form was beautiful as befits a gift for the sultan. But her features were finer than any servant I had ever seen waiting on royalty – delicate, intelligent, proud, her large black eyes burning as hot as hellfire. There was something familiar in her features, but I had no time to dwell on it. She glared at me with the ferocity of a tigress and growled, "Give me the Dagger!"

Her hand darted towards my belt, but my surprise had abated and, grasping her by the wrists, I pushed her up against the wall. In doing so, I noticed a pendant swinging around her neck, with a silvery moon design identical to the one on the Dagger. What on earth did that mean? "Who are you?" I demanded.

"I am Farah," she snapped back, fighting against my grip but unable to match my strength, "daughter of the Maharajah from whom you stole that blade."

I stared at her in surprise. A princess! Little wonder she spoke to me with none of the deference I was accustomed to hearing from servants.

Farah stopped struggling, but her furious glare had not abated. "This – all of this – is your doing!" she cried. "You set loose the Sands of Time! Do you know what that _means?_"

Fury pounded through my veins, quick on the heels of my earlier fear and surprise. "Do you think I understand nothing? I saw my father turned to sand!"

Farah's eyes widened earnestly. "And we will share his fate – if you do not give me the Dagger to undo what you have done!"

Gritting my teeth, I pressed my face closer to hers. "Your traitorous vizier used those same words," I bit out with venom. "From now on, I trust no one but myself."

A sudden whirring sound interrupted our heated argument, and we both whirled around to see enormous scarab beetles fluttering towards us, each as big as my hand and glowing with the golden light of the Sands of Time. Anger forgotten, I shouted at Farah to run as I pulled out my weapons to meet this new threat. One scarab flew towards my face, but I managed to block it with the flat of my blade. The large beetle bounced off the wall, and I took that moment to see where the girl had gone.

Farah had somehow squeezed herself into a narrow crack that pierced through the wall to the hallway beyond, but she hesitated with one arm still exposed. "Go to the reception hall!" I called to her as I hastily fended off several more attacks. "Wait for me there. Go!" She slithered away like a snake, following my command only because she knew I had the Dagger.

Once Farah was gone, I could devote my attention to the task at hand. The scarabs were slow and heavy with the weight of the sand that glowed behind their buzzing wings; it was a simple matter to duck around their cumbersome bodies. With quick jabs of the Dagger, I drained them of their life-giving sands and the empty husks of their bodies fell clattering to the floor. Soon not one beetle remained, and resting my back against the wall, I attempted to still my racing heart.

My thoughts immediately went to Farah, who claimed to be the late Maharajah's daughter. I believed her words – who would make up such a story when she was in as dire circumstances as these? And beyond that, she wore the moon symbol of the Maharajah. I looked at the Dagger in my hand, at the moon glowing faintly on its handle. Perhaps she would have answers for me.

I recalled her appearance, and at last I remembered where I had seen her before. Since we had left India, she had been nearby. In the desert I had felt her dark eyes upon me. In the throne room, she had called out for me to stop. And now, here she was again. She and I, the only two survivors in a palace filled with destruction and death.

Ah, did I say two? Excuse me. We were three. The one who had unleashed the sands, the one who fled from them, and the one responsible for it all.

As I was not quite so incredibly thin as the fair princess, I could not follow her through the crack and return directly to the reception hall. I admit to my chagrin that I had not paid close attention to directions in my lonely wanderings of these halls. I had been so intent on catching up to Farah that I could not remember which direction I had come from. Stepping into one of the many luxurious bed chambers branching off the hallway did nothing to jog my memory. Why must every bed chamber be filled with the same gilt-covered bedsteads, the same embroidered cushions, the same marble pillars? Hoping to obtain a better impression of where in the palace I was, I pushed aside a gauzy curtain and stepped out onto a balcony edged with a delicate lattice.

The dark sky glittered with stars, and from my vantage point I could see towers and courtyards glistening in the moonlight. I had not realized how much time must have passed since we first presented ourselves to the sultan. On the verge of leaning over the railing to get a better look at my position, I suddenly spotted two large, black, vulture-like birds flapping away in the distance. Between their shifting, rustling feathers I could see a golden glow that could only mean one thing: These animals were possessed by the sands as well.

As they rose above a domed tower, I noticed something even more disturbing. Clutched in their talons, swinging between them through the air, hung the Hourglass, still shimmering with glowing grains even though so much had rushed out into the palace. The birds steadily rose through the air, finally disappearing at the top of the central tower of the palace. The famed Tower of Dawn, where it was said the sultan's treasures outshone even the rising sun.

I did not understand the meaning of what I had seen until the birds bore their burden to the very pinnacle of the Tower of Dawn. For a moment, the distant figure of a man stepped out onto a balcony close to the top, as if to welcome his pets. And I knew there was only one other man who could have survived the onslaught of the sands. The man who had tricked me into opening the Hourglass now had his prize...and for some unknown purpose, coveted the Dagger as well, would stop at nothing to possess it. Well, I would give him what he sought. I would plunge it into his foul and treacherous heart!

So incensed was I, so intent on rushing to put an end to my deadly enemy, that I rushed towards the other end of the balcony without noticing the deep cracks that ran through the stone. Before I could stop myself, my footsteps shook loose the unstable stone, and I found myself plummeting down through the cold night air with a large portion of the balcony. Yet even as I fell, I remembered how the Dagger had served me in the Maharajah's treasure vault. It was still in my hand, and in desperation I depressed the switch in the handle. As abruptly as I had begun to fall, my body reversed its direction and soared back up through the air. I held my thumb against the switch until I felt my feet land back on solid stone and run backwards several steps. Then I released the switch and let time resume its normal pace. I watched as the stone crumbled again, right up to my toes. By seeing what would happen, I could prevent the slightest mishap, the deadliest mistake.

The shock of nearly falling to my death had cooled my head, and I reminded myself that I could put nothing right if I was dead. After taking several deep breaths to calm my racing heart, I ran swiftly across the wall to the other side of the gaping hole in the balcony. I gripped the Dagger, expecting the stones to crumble beneath my feet as I landed once more, but these ones held firm. Still uneasy about the fragile stonework, I quickly ducked through the doorway at this end of the balcony, entering the adjoining bed chamber. This one had sustained much more damage than any of the rooms I had seen so far. From what I could see where I stood in the doorway, the large bed that had once stood proudly in the center of this room had fallen through the weakened floor to the room directly below. The two beds lay in a pile of splintered wood and crumbled stone beneath a gaping hole in the floor, sand and white dust covering everything. The marble pillars that held up the ceiling lay broken on the floor or stood with great cracks running through them. I felt as though the merest breath would send the ceiling crashing down around me. I realized as I gazed upon the destruction that I was ultimately the one who had caused such damage to this beautiful palace.

Unless I retraced my steps, I would have to find my way down to the floor below, and as I was doubtful of the balcony's strength, I chose to continue on. One of the bed's red draperies had caught on the lip of the hole in the floor, and by tying it around the stump of a pillar I was able to climb down through the hole till I dangled precariously above the wreckage of the beds. I swung my feet back and forth to gain enough momentum, then leapt from the drapery to a nearby pillar. As soon as I clasped my arms around the smooth marble, I felt the entire pillar shudder, then begin to give way. The pillar tipped forward till my head hung below my feet. Quickly clambering around till I could stand on the other side of the pillar, I slid down as it collided with another pillar. The jarring motion all but knocked me off, but I used the momentum to throw myself at this second pillar, which seemed to remain stable.

I slid down its smooth side to the floor, but before I could so much as brush myself off, I heard a sound I was beginning to dread. With bestial grunts and shuffling feet, a small crowd of sand creatures advanced towards me out of the corners of the room. As soon as my sword left its sheath, they were upon me. I danced among them as before, dodging and parrying their blows to the best of my ability, but this time there were simply too many. They pushed me steadily back even as I strove to take their sands into my Dagger before they rose again.

A burly sand creature, who wore a uniform that bore the insignia of the palace guards, swung its spear in a wide swath that heedlessly cut down its fellows and caught me unprepared. Its strength was astonishing; the blow sent me flying backwards and I crashed through a side door into a small courtyard. Palm trees swayed in the cool night breeze, deceptively calm in the face of the deadly danger pursuing me. I swiftly regained my footing and searched for an escape in the few intervening seconds before the creatures overran the courtyard. Spying a corridor, I hastened to it.

As I neared the corridor, chased by the cries of the sand creatures behind me, I had the oddest feeling that I had done this before...or seen it. The vision I had recently seen rushed back to me, and I recognized the hallway where I had seen myself die. The largest sand creature was upon me then, but I was ready for it. I flipped myself over its shoulders and kicked as hard as I could against its back. As I dropped to the ground, facing the rest of the horde, I heard the creature behind me shriek in pain as it hit the wall and became impaled with the spikes that had impaled me in the vision. I silently thanked the sultan for laying hidden traps along this corridor.

These creatures were at least capable of surprise; they stumbled back when they saw their fellow suddenly slain by nothing but a wall. A few more stumbled against the opposite wall and met similar ends. While the rest of the creatures fell back warily, I hastily gathered the sands from the impaled creatures. The Dagger was a comforting weight in my hand, growing heavier as the sands filled the hilt. Finally the other creatures started forward again, but this time I let myself be pushed backwards. As I backed up, I thrust sand creatures up against the walls with strong blows of my sword, setting off the traps laid there to stop intruders. Gradually, I whittled the crowd of creatures down till only a few remained.

Pain suddenly sliced me in two, scorching as the desert sun. For a moment or two, the pain blocked out my vision completely. Then slowly I realized that I hung over backwards, my sword slipping from my grip, something sharp shooting up through my stomach. Numbness seeped out from the wound, like the blood seeping across my shirt. I realized, as the howls of the sand creatures grew muffled, that I was inches away from death. The Dagger began to slip from my fingers as well, but I focused all my concentration on my hand, and pressed the switch.

Immediately the pain receded as the blade pulled back out of my flesh, my blood rushed back into me, and the flesh knitted together again. I realized, even as my body arced back upwards again, that I had stumbled into the sword trap from the vision. I waited until my feet were a safe distance away from the trap, then I let go of the switch and time flowed forward again. This time, I flipped backwards over the trap, watching the blade jab up into the sand creature on my heels. While the final two creatures reeled back in surprise, I leapt forward and finished them off with a wide swing of my sword.

I stood, breathing hard and looking around at the piles of sand that had once been brutal monsters, but before I could so much as turn around, all the sand in the corridor swarmed towards me. This time I was too exhausted to even attempt resisting it, and giving in, I let the visions come. I saw sand creatures roaming the castle, seeking out any last spark of natural life to put an end to it. I saw the Hourglass, sitting atop a vast pile of treasure inestimable. I saw the hateful vizier, standing beside it and gazing enraptured at the sands glowing within. Then I saw him turn, and motion to the shadows. Several sand creatures shuffled forward. The vizier gestured with his staff, as if issuing them orders, and they immediately turned to carry them out.

My eyes opened once again, and I found myself, as ever, lying upon the floor on a mound of sand. Whence came these visions that assaulted me like fever-dreams? Each time I awoke feeling drained and beaten. And each time, what I had seen came to pass, as if the Sands of Time were giving me a glimpse into my own future. Was this another of the Dagger's enigmatic powers? If that were true...was the vizier indeed responsible for all the danger I had experienced thus far? Had he ordered these creatures as a general orders his troops, to find and kill the one who carried the Dagger of Time? I needed no more reason to hate him than I had already, but now I thought I understood why the trickster had beguiled me into unlocking the Sands of Time. With the Hourglass, the Dagger, and an army that could not be slain, he could put the world under his sway and become more powerful than ten sultans. If that was his plan, I knew I had to stop him.

* * *

**Author's Note: Garsivaz and Saiawush are also known as Gersiwaz and Siyavush. What the Prince refers to in this chapter is an ancient legend in which Garsivaz, brother of Afrasiyab (the king of Turan, a kingdom that's basically the sworn enemy of Persia), plays a double agent to his brother and Saiawush (a Persian prince), betraying them both.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

At the end of the trap-filled corridor, I found a door that led back into the empty hallways of the palace. These hallways once knew peace and beauty, yet now they were filled with drifts of sand and piles of rubble. Yet this time I discovered that I recognized these halls. A manservant had led me down this hallway mere hours ago, showing the way to the guest rooms prepared for us. I hastened down the twisting corridors and up several staircases till I knew I was close to the reception hall where, I hoped, this princess was waiting for me. As I turned down the last hallway, the sounds of battle reached my ears. My heart turned cold within me, for I could easily discern the grunts and howls of sand creatures amidst the confused sounds.

I called out Farah's name, though she had little chance of hearing me. I tried to steel myself for the sight of the sand creatures ripping apart my only possible companion in this accursed palace...but how could I prepare myself for something so abominable? Finally, I emerged on a balcony overlooking the reception hall. Farah stood, still intact, below me on the dusty mosaic of the floor, yet I could see she would not endure for long. She wielded a strong hunter's bow with the skill of a warrior, but the swarming crowd of sand creatures threatened to overwhelm her. Soon one would come too close and leave her unable to defend herself.

There was no time to find a safer way down."Farah!" I cried, drew my weapons and vaulted over the railing of the balcony. Digging the Dagger into a crimson tapestry that hung down one of the thick pillars holding up the balcony, I slid swiftly to the floor, leaving a ragged rent in the cloth. Pushing off the pillar with my feet, I thrust myself towards the nearest sand creature racing towards Farah's back. My sword sliced the creature in half even as I swung the Dagger up to gather its sand. Using my momentum, I rolled to the side and swung at another creature's legs.

Farah noted my approach, and her frightened expression hardened into one of resolve as she redoubled her efforts. "Get back!" I called to her as I whirled to face the oncoming horde. In doing so, I saw something that made my heart grow faint and my limbs tremble. One sand creature stood taller than the rest, clad in dusty rags that had once been a costly blue raiment, and brandishing a fine scimitar. It stood straight and proud, teeth bared in a snarl that glowed with the golden light of the sands. A white beard straggled down its chin, and one eye retained its natural hue while the other leered with the same glow that shone from the sand creatures' every orifice. It was my father, brought back from beyond the grave I had opened for him.

For several long moments, I could do nothing but stare in horror at the mutated form of my father. Guilt battled with revulsion as the creature my father had become shuffled closer. Though the creatures advanced steadily towards me, I could not raise my sword even to defend myself. It was as though my arms were turned to stone. Only when one creature fell to the ground at my feet, stuck with arrows like a boar in the hunt, was I aroused from my stupor. "Be careful!" Farah cried, anger and fear entwined in her voice.

Then as I stared at the creature twitching at my feet, rage took over me, sweeping away my horror like the flood of a sudden rainfall in the desert. I plunged the Dagger into the fallen creature, preventing it from rising ever again, then leapt over the creature bearing down on me. I turned it to sand with the Dagger's power, then slashed out at the next creature. Bounding from one to the next, I let my anger carry my body through the dance of battle. Fighting with the Dagger was becoming second-nature to me; I slashed at one creature's head while sucking the sand out of another. The fury allowed no fear to encroach upon my mind, so even when I barely ducked out of the way of my enemies' attacks, my blades did not falter. Soon the numbers of the sand creatures began to dwindle, until Farah was able to pin the creatures to the ground with her arrows so I could plunge the Dagger into them.

Then, as I focused on drawing a former servant's sand into the Dagger, a heavy scimitar swung down towards me, and I barely rolled out of the way in time. I rolled to my feet, already knowing what I would face. My father – nay, the creature my father had become – faced me, leering with a skeleton's grim smile and holding his blade in a defensive position. I circled around the creature warily, for in life my father had been a master in the art of the sword. I had never seen him bested. The Sands of Time made the creature's movements sluggish, but even so I had no doubt that victory would be hard-won.

My instructor had always counseled me to wait for my opponent to make the first move. Perhaps my father would not have done so, but this creature swung at me after only a few moments of circling around each other. I parried his attack, feeling the fierce blow all the way up to my shoulder. I feinted to one side, but he saw through it and blocked my blow as though it was a playful slap. We traded several more blows, neither of us finding an opening. I had never crossed blades with my father before; I wondered whether we would be so closely matched were my father still living.

With no warning, the creature suddenly swung his blade in a vicious arc, his strike so strong it knocked the sword from my hand. Before I could retreat, he reversed the sweep of his sword, slicing diagonally across my chest from hip to shoulder. Pain burst forth in the wake of his blade, and I felt myself fall backwards onto the tiled floor. A scream reached my ears, but even as I slowly realized the voice was Farah's, my finger found the switch on the Dagger. Farah's scream was sucked back out of my ears, the blood rushed back into my rapidly-closing wound, and I was on my feet again thanks to the Dagger.

Letting go of the switch, I hastily flipped backwards several feet as the creature began his deadly swipe. I heard Farah let out an astonished cry, no doubt surprised that I perceived in advance my adversary's actions. I swiftly rolled around behind the creature, and even as he straightened up from the attack meant to kill me, I plunged my sword into his back. He lurched forward with a roar of pain and anger. He thrust his arm back viciously behind him, and even as I drew my blade back out of his body and danced away, his sword caught my left arm in a glancing blow that sent pain flitting across my skin. I hastily withdrew, feeling warm moisture running down my arm. "Father!" I cried in despair, wishing that somehow he could be the kind, laughing man I had known all my life. My only answer was a sinister leer.

I spotted Farah, bow at the ready, standing in the midst of several faintly glowing corpses. "Distract him!" I cried to her, gesturing painfully at the creature I once called father, who had recovered from his pain and begun shuffling purposefully towards us. Farah immediately sent a barrage of arrows at him, forcing him to focus on dodging her shots or suffer their fierce bites.

I collected the sands from the rest of the fallen creatures in the room and darted out of the large monster's line of sight. I circled around behind him once more, careful not to make any sound that would alert him to my presence. Then, judging myself close enough, I charged forward and sank the Dagger into the wound I had opened before. The creature gave a shriek as the sand pulled away from his body and flowed into the Dagger. The creature twisted around to look at me, and for a moment we gazed into each other's eyes. Nothing of my father remained in those fathomless golden depths, and I knew it was I who had stolen the last vestiges of humanity from him. The last I would see of my beloved father was this abomination of my own workmanship.

As soon as the last of the sand disappeared into the Dagger's hilt, I put my weapons away. The quest for honor and glory had brought my father only this doom, and in that moment I wanted nothing more of that life. Yet I knew I could not simply throw away this life of constant battles. Not until I had paid for my mistakes. I turned my attention to the cut on my arm. It did not seem to be very deep, so I pulled the torn sleeve off and used it to bind my wound. I focused all my attention on the difficult task of tying a bandage one-handed, so I would not have to look up and meet Farah's gaze.

I heard her footsteps approaching, and before I mustered the courage to raise my head, I felt her hand upon my shoulder. "I'm sorry," she said softly.

"Why?" I replied fiercely, vainly denying the ache in my heart.

"I know what it is to lose a father." Her words could have been vindictive, bitter against one of the soldiers who had killed those she held dear and snatched her away from her homeland. Yet her voice held nothing but sympathy.

Somehow, that sympathy angered me. Perhaps I sought momentary solace from my pain by hiding behind anger. I shrugged her comforting hand away and stood swiftly. I could hear the sand beginning to rasp across the floor, rushing towards me. "That was not my father!" I snarled at Farah, then turned and raced towards the growing cloud of sand, towards oblivion, however short-lived its respite might be.

"What are you doing?" Farah cried out in alarm behind me, but I did not even hesitate. "Stop!"

Oblivion was little better than the reality I sought to escape. I saw myself fighting crowds of sand creatures, escaping traps, and running for my life. I saw Farah fighting at my side, shooting the creatures with her bow as I danced around them. I saw a sand creature knock into her just as she was taking aim, and the arrow flew awry. The arrow missed the creature she had been aiming for, and plunged into my heart instead.

I awoke with a jolt, as though an arrow truly had pierced my chest, but I lay safely on the sand-strewn floor, intact but for the cut in my arm. I looked up, only to find the Dagger lying a few feet away, and Farah inching cautiously towards it, hand outstretched. Alarmed, I lunged towards it, grasped the hilt, and rolled to my feet, rising warily with the Dagger pointing towards her. "So this is the thanks I get for saving your life."

Farah frowned, desperation plain on her face. "You don't understand," she said earnestly. "I need that dagger to undo-"

"To 'undo what I have done'," I finished coldly, beginning to grow weary of such reminders of my mistake. My folly confronted me at every turn. All she did was remind me that I could no longer trust anyone. "Truly, you must think me a fool."

"You are right to be cautious," Farah replied impatiently, coming nearer and ignoring the Dagger in my hand. "But fight as bravely as you may, you cannot defeat this enemy. The sands will spread; they will consume...everything."

An empty void swirled in her dark eyes, like a night without stars. I imagined what would become of the world if the vizier obtained the Dagger. Would everything become a lifeless wasteland, a desert filled with creatures who could never die, yet never live either?

Farah placed a warm hand on my arm, drawing me back from that cold future. "I have heard it said that you are kind as well as brave."

"Oh?" I said with a bitter smile. "And where did you hear that?"

She frowned. "The eunuch placed over the women your father took from India. He said there was not a man in all of Persia as great or as good as Shahraman, and his sons were the same."

It did my heart good to hear such words of praise spoken of my father, especially since he had tried to kill me but moments before.

"Please trust me," she continued softly. "Help me find the Hourglass."

I looked at Farah again, closer this time. I could see nothing but sincerity in her expression, yet how could I be certain she would not betray me? She had tried to take away the Dagger, my only defense. Were I in her position, I would certainly take it at the earliest opportunity. I would gladly watch the sands take over an enemy prince who had destroyed my entire life. Would she not do the same? And yet...I wanted to trust her. Already I grew weary of wandering these empty halls alone. I did not wish to admit it even to myself, but I longed for someone to talk to. It was very appealing to think that I could share the heavy burden that rested on my shoulders.

At last I grudgingly said, "The Hourglass is in the sultan's treasure vault atop the Tower of Dawn."

Farah drew back doubtfully. "How do you know that?"

"I just know," I replied impatiently, angry with myself for desiring a companion to such an extent that I would even risk betrayal. "Come with me if you insist," I continued, feigning nonchalance. "But I warn you, I run rather quickly. You'd better keep up."

"Very well." With that, Farah turned and ran swiftly down the hall to a large, broken window at the end and jumped out to the balcony below before I could even attempt to follow her.

Hastening after her, I found her standing beside a clear fountain in the middle of the sprawling balcony, waiting calmly as though we were about to begin a moonlit stroll. As I came to a stop at her side, she arched one of her eyebrows. "And you were worried about _me_ keeping up."

I glared at her, but my thirst was great and I bent down to drink from the pool before I looked around to get my bearings. The battles I had engaged in, and the visions wrought by the sands, dried out my throat as though I walked through a scorching desert. Casting my gaze up the side of the palace walls, I tried to find a way we could reach the Tower of Dawn that seemed to touch the sky. As my eyes alighted on the dome at the very top, I remembered the birds that had carried the Hourglass to the vizier. "The sands have taken over every living thing in this palace," I murmured. "I carry the Dagger of Time, thus they cannot touch me. How is it that you have escaped such a fate as well?" I returned my gaze to the princess.

"This medallion," she said with reluctance, pointing to the moon pendant she wore around her neck. "My mother gave it to me before she died, when I was a child. She said it would protect me from evil spirits... I never imagined she spoke the truth. I only wore it to honor her memory..." For a moment, she looked lost, like a small child thrust suddenly into a world of danger. Then she seemed to pull her courage around herself again and glared at me. "But we need to be on our way, not standing here chattering like monkeys! Come, we must go!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

We hastened across the balcony to a flight of stairs that led to a door in a small tower. We could not open the door, no matter how we bent our shoulders to it. "It must be locked from the other side," Farah pointed out.

"Then we shall have to find another way in." I started forward quickly, determined to take the lead this time, but the weakened stone crumbled beneath my feet. Even as I fumbled for the Dagger at my belt, my fall ended abruptly. I had landed on a roof that jutted out from the wall of the palace, and grunted with the impact. Catching myself just short of the edge, I lay still for a moment or two as the shock wore off.

I heard Farah's voice from the darkness above me. "Are you all right?"

"Stay there!" I called back, though even a fool would know better than to follow. "I think I've found another way in!" For I had spotted another door almost directly below the one that had resisted us, and this one stood open. A long drop separated me from it, but in between several green flags with the sultan's mark on them hung from horizontal flagpoles, bridging the gap to another roof that reached out over the door I was aiming for.

Farah paced back and forth on the balcony above me as she waited. "So you're going to leave me here, all alone?" she demanded. "A noble prince you are, abandoning a helpless woman where she could at any moment become surrounded by the living dead! What does your precious Persian honor have to say about _that?_"

I rolled my eyes to the heavens, muttering, "Give me the strength not to kill her." Not deigning to answer such a pointless question, I sprang from the roof I stood on, grasped the nearest flagpole in both hands, and swung back and forth. When I gained enough momentum, I leapt to the next, and the next, and the next. My hand nearly slipped from the cold metal once or twice, but I reached the other roof in safety and squatted down to catch my breath. I could no longer hear Farah's footsteps on the balcony above.

"She tried to steal my dagger, even after I saved her life!" I muttered to myself, keeping my hand on the hilt as I gazed back the way I had come, and realized how I had just taken my life into my hands. "She would have left me there to die. And here I am, risking my life for her again. And why? Good question!" Without Farah, I might have found a safer, easier route to the Tower of Dawn. Without Farah, I would not be in this place at all. However...without her, I would be alone. Though I did not know if I could trust her completely, at least I could trust her more than the vizier. And so I found myself getting to my feet once more, to find a way back to her.

Once inside the tower, I found the staircase that led directly to the door behind which Farah stood. Or so it would have done. Now it lay broken in great pieces on the floor. However, metal beams spanned the tower, and by swinging from one to another and occasionally kicking off of a wall to reach a higher beam, I managed to reach the top unscathed but for the aching of my shoulders. Oh, to what lengths I went to rejoin my companion! By the time I pulled back the iron bolt locking the door, I was quite out of breath and not feeling charitable towards the princess at all.

"There you are," Farah said with obvious relief, hurrying in to stand beside me. "It's so quiet out there." She continued talking nervously, as though to fill that silence. "There's not a single living creature to make a sound. It's terrible...but also, beautiful. Like a night with no moon."

"Maybe beautiful to you," I grumbled, seeing nothing worthy of praise in this place. Women and their idle fancies. "We'd best be moving on."

The staircase winding up the rest of the tower led us to another door at the top. Locked, of course. Even as I was about to turn back and seek a different path, Farah cried out, "Look!" She pointed to a large, jagged crack running alongside the door. Without further ado, she squeezed herself through the narrow gap and opened the door from the other side.

"Skinny little thing, aren't you?" I said dismissively as I passed her, unwilling to acknowledge that she might prove more useful than merely something to fill the silence. I could feel her glare burning against my back as we continued down the corridor to another door.

"What is this place?" Farah murmured as we beheld a tower that seemed to be the twin of the previous one, save that the staircase in this one was almost completely intact. A portion near the top had broken away, and near the floor of the tower, the white stone glimmered in the dim light cast by several torches on the walls.

I turned back to contemplate the gap in the staircase, then took a running start and let my momentum carry me across the wall to the other side, where my feet sent a few pebbles cascading downwards.

"Do you expect me to mimic the acrobatics of a prince of Persia?" Farah asked tensely behind me. When I looked back, apprehension clouded her face, as if she feared that I would leave her and this time I would not return.

I will not pretend the idea did not seem appealing in that moment. Everything was so much simpler when I was alone; I knew my abilities, and had only myself to keep safe. I did not fancy forever having to turn back and collect Farah. "Just stay there," I told her impatiently, already making my way down the stairs. "I'll find another path for your _dainty royal feet_."

"I'm surprised you noticed," she called after me, "when you can't even see past your _finely-toned physique._"

As I neared the foot of the stairs, shapes began to take form in the gloom: dusty crates, earthen vessels, indistinct piles of goods that no doubt would have been sent to the kitchens had I not opened the Hourglass. Then as my foot left the stairs, other shapes began to emerge from the shadows. Shapes that sent cold trickles down my spine. Shufflings of feet and loud breathing met my ears. I hastily unsheathed my sword, squinting into the menacing shadows.

Before I could distinguish it from the cloying darkness, an enormous sand creature stumbled towards me. Sand had bloated its belly till the distended mass hung over its dirty cloth belt like a filled waterskin about to burst. Its burly arms swung a heavy mallet at my legs, hoping to trip me. I leapt nimbly over its clumsy attack, ducked a swipe at my head, and kicked the creature's jaw as fiercely as I could. The creature staggered back against another one as stocky as it was, and together they fell to the floor. While they struggled to regain their footing, I dodged the attacks of their slimmer companions and plunged the Dagger through the flesh of one and into the other. The Dagger grew heavy in my hand.

I defended myself as best as I could in the flickering shadows, yet I knew I could not continue this for long. In dodging blows from the creatures that surrounded me, I steadily gave ground until my back pressed against the mountain of crates that filled the room. Just as I was about to lose all hope of survival, I heard a squeaking and squealing as of wooden wheels turning in the air above me. With several quick flips to the side, I reached the foot of the stairs and glanced upwards. Farah descended on some sort of contraption designed to convey supplies up and down the tower. She held in her hands two blazing torches that sent the shadows fluttering into the corners like frightened bats. Leaping down onto the crates piled against the walls, she climbed nimbly over them to place her torches in brackets on either side of the wall.

As I fended off the creatures that crowded around the foot of the stairs, I realized how the added light made it much easier to fight my enemies. I saw out of the corner of my eye that Farah stood atop a nearby pile of crates, fitting an arrow to the string. "Get out of here!" I cried, leaping over the shoulders of a creature who lunged forward to attack the space where I had stood. I dug the Dagger into its back, feeling the flesh turn to sand as I hit the ground and rolled away from the others.

"It seems to me you could use my help," Farah told me coolly, taking aim and shooting a sand creature on the other side of the room. "I'll cover you...with my _dainty_ royal fingers."

Suddenly I remembered the vision I had seen most recently: Farah's shot going awry and causing my death. "Please don't," I called up distractedly as I fought. "You're liable to hit me."

But Farah did not put away her bow, and too much of my concentration was occupied with the monsters in front of me to argue any further. At last, after several minutes, only a few of the vile creatures remained scattered around the room. When I noticed one lurking near a stack of crates, I climbed as swiftly as I could to the top of the pile, then pounced upon the creature, both blades sinking into its flesh with a dull crunch. While I was thus occupied, however, one of the creatures had sneaked up onto the boxes behind Farah. I whirled around when I heard an annoyed grunt, and saw the creature stumble against the princess, who was taking aim at the only remaining creature several feet to my left. With a cry, she lurched to the side and the bowstring slipped from her fingers.

But I, remembering my vision from the sand, had already begun to dive to the side as soon as I saw the sand creature, and I felt only a sting as the arrow grazed past my arm, leaving a tear in my right sleeve. These creatures seemed determined to ruin my best shirt. "You see?" I cried angrily as I rushed forward to draw the sands from the rest of the creatures. "I told you not to help me!"

As the last sand creature collapsed into a pile of sand, Farah opened her mouth to make a hot retort. Then she noticed the sand blowing across the floor towards me, and stumbled backwards, gazing at me fearfully. I merely put away my weapons and calmly waited for the vision to begin. I could see that there was little use resisting these visions, and indeed they had proven helpful.

This time, I saw many animals racing through the palace – great cats and exotic birds that my father had brought from India. Every living thing ran or scuttled or flew to one place: the Tower of Dawn. The vizier seemed to be speaking to them, commanding them with words of power as he had the creatures who had once been human. The animals hurried away from him as soon as he gave them orders, rushing away in their many varied gaits with a terrible golden glow in their eyes...


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

Gradually, the sand vision receded and I returned to my senses on the cold stone floor, covered in fine sand. With a weary groan, I pushed myself upright and dusted off my ruined shirt. I glanced up and saw Farah sitting on a nearby crate, her arms crossed and a petulant frown upon her lips. Her bow lay across her knees. "Are you all right?" she asked somewhat grudgingly, as if she wished I would say 'no'.

"How long was I unconscious?" I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut for a moment and feeling the grit of sand on my eyelashes.

"Long enough!" Farah snapped, rising smoothly. "What if the sand creatures came back?"

I smiled mirthlessly at her. "They won't," I told her with certainty. "At least, not in this place. Now come, we must continue."

We passed from the storage room to a series of stone corridors that seemed to be designed for servants to travel quickly throughout the palace. The only rooms off the corridor appeared to be smaller storage rooms, and the passages seemed to lead towards the Tower of Dawn, so we continued on our way. I wondered idly as we walked side by side whether Farah would have had to learn her way through these passages, had I not opened the Hourglass. What would Farah have been like as a servant girl? Not quite so sharp-tongued, I hoped.

As if to prove me wrong, she suddenly spoke up. "You know, you really walk like one. Head held high, chest out, long _stomping_ strides. The walk of a self-satisfied Persian prince." She gave me a disgusted glance. "No doubt it comes from being told since birth the world is yours, and actually believing it."

I grabbed her arm and forced her to come to a stop, glaring down at her and forcing myself not to strike her. This was the way she treated me, when I continued to save her life? "You think I am satisfied with myself?" I demanded angrily. "You think I gloat over the mistake I made, that I relish what I did to every last living thing in this accursed palace? I am the reason my father, the greatest man I have ever known, now lies dead. I have no one and nothing to return to, and there is nothing for me here but death and danger. What you're looking at is the walk of a man who has lost everything."

Turning on my heel, I continued down the hallway. With my _stomping strides._ Farah fell mercifully silent until we stepped through an open door into a large courtyard surrounded by high walls. One end of the courtyard was enclosed in a gigantic metal cage that rose even higher than the walls of the courtyard. Within the cage, I could see smaller pens and many perches for birds.

"Where are we?" Farah asked as we made our way across the courtyard.

"This is the sultan's zoo!" I exclaimed with wonder. As we drew near, I saw that one wall of the cage had been built against a stone wall. There seemed to have been, at one time, a set of stairs leading up to a grand door leading deeper into the palace, but the tremors that had shaken the entire palace had broken these stairs apart. Seeing that the gate to the enormous cage had been bent and broken, I led the way inside.

I looked around at the empty cage, at the twisted and torn metal. The fabled menagerie of Azad, the sultan's pride and joy. It had been one of the wonders of the world. As a child I had dreamed of it and longed to see it with my own eyes. Now it was a place of terror, an abandoned ruin laid waste by the Sands of Time. And even as I stood surveying the desolation that must once have been beautiful, I felt a chill run down my spine. The sound of birds' wings reached our ears, and we looked up to find four exotic birds with bright plumages circling down towards us.

"Birds!" Farah breathed in surprise. "I wonder how they survived the sands."

Remembering my latest vision and the birds that had borne the Hourglass to the Tower of Dawn, I pulled out my sword. "I don't think they _did_ survive," I murmured slowly.

Farah gasped and nocked an arrow when the birds began to swoop down toward us. I discovered that killing these birds was much harder than fighting any of the other sand creatures, for the birds were so fast, small, and agile that it was all I could do to dodge or block their sharp beaks and talons, leaving me few opportunities to strike back. Even when I managed to swing my sword at them, they easily fluttered out of reach.

After several unsuccessful attacks, the birds swept back into the air and gathered together for a concentrated attack. Their sharp beaks glistened in the moonlight, and I felt all the muscles in my body tightening as I waited for them to swoop down on me. I watched them carefully as they descended, hoping to catch at least one on my blade. Yet even as I lunged forward and stabbed the foremost one with the Dagger, I heard a swift whizzing, and two of the birds fell to the ground, dead. I looked up in time to see Farah quickly aim for the final bird, then let the arrow fly.

I gathered the birds' sands with relief, thinking Farah's quick shooting had saved us from the ordeal, but even as I straightened from the last bird, I heard a deep growling behind me that sent fear searing up the back of my neck. Whirling around, eyes wide, I saw two pinpricks of light in the shadows of the menagerie. Two small spots of reflected moonlight, like the eyes of a predator watching its next meal. The growl rolled out towards me again, and a lithe form slunk through the shadows, creeping towards me. "Farah," I murmured in a low voice, my hand tightening around the hilt of my sword. I hardly dared to open my mouth. "Get out of here now. Move slowly. No sudden movements."

I felt Farah leave my side, but I did not turn my eyes away from the shifting shadows and those two glaring eyes. A moment of utter silence stretched into eternity, as though the entire world held its breath. Then the shadows parted, and a great tiger bounded across a band of moonlight, leaping towards me. I flipped backwards, out of reach of its snapping jaws. I could see the glow of sand at the back of its throat.

The tiger lunged at me again, and this time I swung my sword to meet it, forcing it to duck out of the way. I pressed the advantage, and my blade slashed across the tiger's back, revealing the golden glow within. The tiger recoiled with a snarl, scampering back into the shadows. The glow disappeared behind a pile of straw, and the snarls faded away. After several moments of complete silence, I relaxed, lowering my arm and wiping the sweat from my brow. I turned to leave the menagerie, when suddenly a roar broke through the night air above me. Before I could react, a piece of the night sky seemed to break away and fall on top of me. The tiger had somehow climbed up above me, and now I lay on my back on the ground with the great cat on top of me, its claws digging into my shoulders and its long, sharp teeth snapping mere inches away from my face. The unexpected attack had knocked my weapons from my hands, and though I desperately pushed the tiger's neck back with my hands, the beast was too strong and heavy. I could see my death staring back at me in the infernal glow of the sand, and this time the Dagger of Time could not save me.

I heard arrows singing through the air, then the tiger fell limp against me. Its dead weight and thick fur nearly smothered me, but I managed to push the body off and snatch up my weapons again, gasping for breath. Only after I plunged the Dagger into the tiger's body and stumbled from the great cage did I allow myself to relax again. Farah rushed up to me, her face white from either the moonlight or fear, I could not tell which. "Thank you," I said somewhat breathlessly, sheathing both blades.

"You're hurt!" Farah reached out to my shoulder, but I jerked away from her touch.

"They are not deep," I reassured her, inspecting them myself. "I'll live."

The sand from the animals' bodies blew towards me through the twisted bars of the cage. Farah hastily backed away as the sand began to swirl around me. "Please be careful," she said nervously. "Last time you lay unconscious for more than five minutes."

I opened my mouth to tell her I had no control over the inception or duration of the sand visions, but then the sand whirled before my eyes and blotted out the world. I saw stone pools filled with steaming water, with sand turning to mud beneath the surface. I saw myself and Farah battling sand creatures, splashing through the pools of water, slipping and nearly falling. I saw myself pushing over a statue of a woman bearing a water jar. And I saw the two of us standing by a splintered wooden door.

When I returned to my senses, the first thing I felt was my shoulders, throbbing in the wake of the sand tiger's claws. After a few moments, I found I could push the pain to the back of my mind, and I stood with only a slight grimace.

Farah hurried to my side. "Are you all right?"

"Yes," I assured her, then turned to the problem at hand. Though the staircase next to the great iron cage now lay in ruins on the ground, the stone had broken away roughly. The pockmarked face of the wall provided a clear path to the door that led deeper into the palace. While Farah waited on the ground, I scaled the rock face, gripping the uneven stone with all my might. My shoulders ached by the time I pulled myself onto the landing before the door. A stash of supplies lay against the wall next to the open door, most likely kept there to care for the animals in the menagerie. Crates and baskets had been stacked in a disheveled pile, among which lay a coil of rope.

I looked from the coil of rope to the open door beckoning me, to the stone hallway beyond lit by torches along the walls. And the temptation to leave Farah behind whispered in my ear once more. I took two steps towards the door, thinking how much simpler it would be, how I would have no more cause to endanger myself to protect her.

"What are you doing?" Farah called up to me warily.

In that moment, I made a decision. No longer would I think of leaving her. She had helped me several times already. Together, we might stand a chance against the vizier; without her, I might already be dead. She was worth the risk. Besides, my honor could hardly allow me to simply abandon her. Grabbing the coil of rope, I dropped one end down to Farah and pulled her up when she grasped it. As I helped her over the edge, I said airily, "I thought I'd make sure it was safe first before letting you up."

Farah scowled at me. "How very _considerate_ of you." Tossing back her black hair, she led the way into the stone passageway.

If you have believed the rest of my tale until now, perhaps you will also believe me as I tell you that, as we made our way through the moonlit ruins, I began to feel strangely drawn to the girl at my side. My reason told me to distrust her, for she had good cause to hate me. Yet she had proven herself a loyal companion. I was grateful for the company of someone who, like me, was flesh and blood. And I confess that, though sweat streaked her face and dust had completely ruined her clothes, I could not deny that she was fair to look upon.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

We continued through the stone hallways in silence for a time. I sensed that Farah was angry with me, though I did not know the cause until I heard her muttering under her breath, "So you 'wanted to make sure it was safe' then? Very heroic." I felt she was being rather unfair, since I _had_ helped her up after all, but I held my silence.

After several bends and turns, the smooth stone walls of the hallway became more roughly hewn. The hallway abruptly opened out to a wide ravine between two sections of the palace, connected by a swaying rope bridge. A waterfall cascaded over the ravine's side close to where we stood and fed a river that ran through the ravine far below. Carefully making our way across the bridge, we could feel the spray from the waterfall dampen our clothes and hair. We reached the other side, but found our way blocked yet again by a door that seemed to be locked.

"This sultan must have been positively paranoid, locking every door like this," Farah said, giving the door one last frustrated push.

"I would lock my doors too," I remarked, immediately searching for an alternative route, "if the Sands of Time appeared on my doorstep." I noted the way the cliff broke off in narrow ledges, from which grew a few stunted trees watered by the spray of the cataract. "I think I can make my way up there," I said, pointing to a window several feet above the locked door. However, the stone face around the door was nearly sheer, and I could see that I would have to climb around from a different direction.

Farah gazed incredulously at the cliff. "That's impossible!"

"Difficult," I corrected, "not impossible."

Farah rolled her eyes. "Or more proof you're insane."

I smirked at her, already moving back the way we had come. "Then why do you look so impressed?"

The walls of the ravine rose up alongside the walls of the palace, almost as though these lower sections of the sultan's abode had been carved out of the stony ground. I pulled myself up the wall near the end of the rope bridge opposite where Farah stood watching me, using the numerous handholds and footholds in the stone. The various ledges and cracks led me, clinging desperately to the stone, several feet above the window.

I felt with one foot for a crack below me, then with the other, but could find no purchase on the smooth rock. Squinting down over one shoulder did nothing but give me a dizzying sense of vertigo that nearly made my fingers slip off the cliff face. Strange how the ravine had not seemed so deep when I stood on the swaying rope bridge. "Farah!" I called, closing my eyes and admonishing my heart to still its pounding. "Can you see any footholds below me?"

When Farah spoke, her voice sounded very close by. This might have given me comfort, had her words not been so hopeless. "No," she said grimly. "The cliff drops straight down to the window."

I hung in position for a moment more, my wounded shoulders aching and my fingers beginning to tremble with exertion. "How far down is the window?" I called.

Farah paused as though to gauge the distance, then called back, "Only three or four feet, I should think."

The plan forming in my mind was reckless, but I could think of no other choice when I hung precariously over a deep ravine. Gripping the stone even tighter with one hand, I carefully let go of the stone with the other and reached down to pull out the Dagger. I felt the reassuring switch with my thumb, ready to press it the moment I made a wrong move. Digging the sharp tip of the blade into the side of the cliff, I let go of the ledge I clung to and slid swiftly down the cliff face, letting the Dagger slow my descent. My feet landed on the bottom sill of the window and I nearly lost my balance. Yet before I could fall backward, I managed to grip the side of the window and regain my precarious balance. Pulling the Dagger out of the stone, I swung myself inside and dropped carefully to the floor.

As soon as I opened the door to let Farah through, she cried, "What on earth were you _thinking?_ You could have fallen to your death!"

"Which would cause you no sorrow," I snapped.

"That's not true!" Farah retorted angrily, then looked aside and hastily added, "The...the Dagger would have fallen with you, and then where would I be? Just...stop endangering us both that way!"

I led the way onward through the corridor. "I have little choice, _princess._" Why must my only companion scold me like a mother? I began to long for the timid servant girl of my imagination.

As we continued through the deserted hallways that steadily curved to the side, I felt that we were no longer heading the direction of the Tower of Dawn. When we came upon a hole blasted into the wall of the corridor, I scrambled through it in the hopes that it would lead us more directly to our destination. As Farah climbed through after me, the stones began to crumble again and obscure part of the hole. I hastily grabbed her arm and pulled her out of harm's way, stumbling several steps forward as the wall collapsed behind us.

When the dust cleared, I saw that we stood in an extensive maze of extravagant marble rooms, each containing at least one pool of water that steamed from the furnaces still burning away beneath the floor. It seemed we had found our way to the sultan's baths. Water pipes and mounds of richly-embroidered cushions surrounded the pools, and graceful statues stood either holding torches to light the rooms or letting a stream of water fall into the pools. The gentle light flickering on the marble, the tinkling splash of steady fountains of water, and the steamy warmth together made a delightfully relaxing atmosphere, even without the distant murmur of voices or servants passing quietly through the rooms. The tension in my shoulders from all my previous battles gradually dissipated.

Suddenly Farah broke the silence that had fallen between us. "What is your favorite color?"

I stared at her blankly, sure I had misheard her. "Color?"

Farah asked in a mocking tone, "Shall I repeat the question for your marble ears?"

Wondering whether the sand had infected her brain, I cautiously answered, "Blue."

The princess smiled. I was surprised to discover how much her appearance improved when she was not glaring at me as though I was the spawn of Ahriman. "Mine is green."

"What is the point of this?" I asked, bewildered.

Farah shrugged lightly. "Must every conversation we have be so serious? I know so little about you. And as I daresay we shall be seeing quite a lot of each other, we may as well get to know one another."

I smiled wryly. "Very well. Then...what is your favorite food?"

"The pomegranate, of course."

How typical. Everyone I had ever met seemed to like those red seeds. "_I_ do not like pomegranates."

"What is wrong with you?" Farah asked in surprise, showing the same shock as everyone else I had told.

Remembering my attempts at eating pomegranates as a boy, I made a disgusted face. "They are messy," I pronounced with finality. "Impossible to eat with dignity. So much work for but a few seeds."

Farah shook her head, as if she could not believe that anyone would dislike her favorite thing to eat. "But is it not the effort that makes them that much sweeter?"

I discovered that it was easy to talk with her, and our light conversation made me forget for a few moments the horrors riding swift at our heels, the impossible task that lay before us. What I would have given to have spent just one relaxing hour sitting on these cushions, even if Farah were my only companion, before catastrophe had rendered this place barren! As we made our way through the maze of connected rooms, I imagined smoking a pipe, conversing casually with the princess and listening to the faint sound of voices from the next room.

I took several paces more before realizing the voices did not solely originate from my imagination. Yet these voices were not speaking quietly amidst clouds of sweet-smelling smoke; they were grunting with anticipation as their clumsy feet hurriedly shuffled forwards. It was far too late to run or hide, as what had once been a servant appeared in the next doorway, gnashing its teeth and brandishing a jagged piece of rock.

Even as I drew my weapons, many more creatures crowded forward, as though all the servants that had been in the baths when the sands struck now attempted to push through the door towards us. As I saw them struggling to push through a doorway much too narrow to admit them in such numbers, an idea sprang into my mind. Rushing forward, I plunged my Dagger into one creature's chest and twisted it to freeze it in place while I deflected the attack of the creature next to it with my sword. As quickly as I was able, I did the same to the other creatures pushing forward in the front. Farah's arrows over my shoulders at the creatures in the back, whizzing past uncomfortably close to my skin.

In a few moments, sand creatures stilled in time completely blocked off the doorway, like a wall of impenetrable sandstone. I could hear the frustrated howls of the sand creatures behind them. Just as I was backing away to find another door, a sword slashed through the frozen flesh blocking the doorway, and the entire barricade collapsed into a pile of dust. Farah hastily retreated as I fended off the first few creatures that rushed towards us, and suddenly her voice cut through my concentration. "Quick, over here!"

Without hesitation, I ran in the direction of her voice as fast as my legs could carry me, aware of the creatures close on my heels. I saw Farah speedily scaling a ladder bolted to the wall, leading up to the upper level where, I assumed, the servants' quarters were. Before I could reach the ladder myself, a large sand creature swiped at it with a hefty sword, and my escape route splintered onto the floor.

Within moments the sand creatures surrounded me and pressed me dangerously close to a corner. I whirled on the spot, viciously slicing through those nearest me. They fell to the ground with pained cries, but more shuffled forward to take their place. Dancing back several steps to quickly take one of the creatures' sand, I braced one foot against the wall. When a creature came close enough, I pushed off the wall and propelled myself into its chest with great force. My sword stuck in the creature's flesh, so I hurled its dead weight into another creature that rushed towards me from the side. The two creatures collapsed onto the floor, and I staggered forwards from the momentum of my attack. Barely hearing the shuffling approach of another creature from behind, I turned my stumble into a duck and rolled out of the way, leaving the creature to cleave its fellows in two with a powerful stroke.

Corpses glowed dangerously all around me, but there were too many for me to collect before their bodies would begin to rise again. As I dove for a corpse that had begun to clamber to its feet once more, a sand creature dropped to the ground behind me, felled by one of Farah's arrows. I kicked another's feet out from under it as I stabbed this newest corpse with the Dagger, and rolled past the lunge of yet another creature to reach one slumped in the corner. Springing to my feet, I ran up the wall a few steps, then flipped over backward to drop behind the creature that was the closest, stabbing it with my sword as the Dagger froze another creature in place.

Suddenly I found myself standing in a clear circle of open space, breathing heavily. The sand creatures shuffled back the way they had come as quickly as they could. I stared after them in surprise; they had never retreated from me before. After taking a moment or two to catch my breath, I raced after them, for once taking on the role of the hunter rather than the prey. I sped through two rooms filled with the same extravagance as the others, my footsteps echoing sharply off the marble walls. I could not tell where Farah had gone, but there were more pressing matters at hand. Then I burst into a room filled with a series of shallow pools, rising up like a water-filled staircase. I saw at once that I had been fooled. Fooled by minds filled with sand.

* * *

**Author's Note: The "water pipes" mentioned here are not plumbing, but traditional smoking pipes used throughout the Middle East. See the Wikipedia page under 'hookah' for more information. Also, Ahriman is roughly the ancient Persian equivalent of Satan.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

Every sand creature crowding the room before me snarled and brandished their weapons – double-edged swords, curving scimitars, slim spears and glaives, bristling maces, hefty hammers... How had these monsters managed to find such weapons in the baths? For a moment I stood rooted to the floor, my heart quailing within me at the prospect of facing so many foes. But the creatures shuffled towards me with eager howls, and I was forced to lift my sword in defense or give myself up to their mercies. Considering that they had given their utmost to tear me limb from limb, I chose the former.

I vaulted over the nearest creature's shoulders, stabbed it in the back, then sprang to the next. Severing its head from its shoulders, I leapt to the nearest wall, kicked off the smooth stones, and landed Dagger-first on the one standing behind it. Even as its body dissolved into sand, I cut a wide swathe with my sword and several creatures in the vicinity fell to the ground with grunts of pain. Before they could scramble back to their feet, more creatures rushed forward, trampling them in their haste to reach me. I spotted a metal beam protruding from the wall from which had hung a beautiful tapestry. The destruction to the palace had bent the beam till it thrust into the air almost perpendicular to the wall, and only a few shreds of cloth still hung from it. I sprang onto a nearby creature's shoulders, broke its neck with a vicious twist, and leapt from there to the beam.

I swung back and forth as a former servant rushed towards me, then kicked its jaw as hard as I could. Dropping back to the ground, I plunged the Dagger into the fallen creature, yet as soon as I had, a sword crashed through me from behind. With an explosion of pain, I felt my spine break beneath the blow. Before I had even stumbled forward onto the ground, I pressed the button on the Dagger and the agony disappeared as I flew back up to the beam. This time, I kicked out at the sand creature in front of me, then swung backwards and kicked as hard as I could behind me. With a satisfying crunch, my heel connected with that creature's nose. Then I swung forward again and dropped to the ground, gathering up their sands.

Whirling around even as I straightened up again, my sword forced the nearest sand creatures to spring back. The creatures that now surrounded me had once been servant girls in the baths, judging from their revealing garb. Their slender forms might have been pleasing to look upon in life, but the sands had taken any beauty they had once possessed and turned it to a deathly pallor as if all blood had been sucked from their bodies and replaced with grit and dust. Their bodies were lithe and cruel, and they snarled as they brandished knives they had found somewhere. Facing these vicious enemies, I thought them not unlike the tiger I had fought in the menagerie.

These female sand creatures seemed able to move more quickly than the others; it was all I could do to fend off their glinting knives as they whirled around me, snarling and jeering. Their knives whistled through the air almost too fast for the eye to see, as though they sported as many hands as pagan goddesses from India. Suddenly another female voice echoed around the room, this one coming from somewhere above me. "Here, this will help you! I'm opening the sluice gate!"

Hearing the distant rush of water, I felt a vague apprehension. The sand creatures leapt back from me, listening as well. I glanced around and saw that I stood in the center of the lowest pool, which was as dry as a bone. It would not remain so for long. The pool quickly filled with water, and though the sand creatures shrieked with discomfort and stepped out of the pool, it did not seem to harm them as Farah had apparently hoped.

Taking advantage of their momentary distraction, I swiped at the nearest two female sand creatures. One fell to the ground with a splash; the other hastily jumped backward out of reach, only to fall with one of Farah's arrows through its skull. As I gathered the sand from the muddy corpses in the water up to my knees, the other creatures seemed to overcome their wariness and splashed after me with throaty yells.

I fought off the creatures with all my might, flinging water in all directions as I spun and danced. The water tugging at my legs slowed me down and provided enough resistance that I soon grew exhausted. I edged further and further to the side of the pool as I fought, hoping to gain dry ground again. Then as I lunged to the side to evade a blow, my feet slid on the slick wet marble and I fell with an almighty splash. The next few moments were a confusion of dull blows and water muffling and garbling every sound. Finally I managed to raise myself out of the water, coughing and swinging my sword desperately in all directions, since my wet hair clung to my face and obscured my view.

By the time I managed to get my feet under me and fling my hair out of my eyes, the sand creatures had either retreated or fallen beneath my blade. After hastily stabbing the submerged corpses, I labored through the ever-rising water and stepped out of the pool at last. As I started towards the last remaining cluster of sand creatures, I spotted a tall statue of a woman holding a jar of water. Remembering my last vision, I raced towards it and threw my shoulder against the stone feet. To my surprise, it moved with ease and its pedestal crumbled. The statue toppled over, crushing the creatures and pinning them to the ground.

After collecting the sands from the creatures beneath the statue, I heard a splashing and howling behind me. I whirled around to see that one of the sand creatures I had missed now raged towards me, flinging copious amounts of water to either side as it ran. I raced forward and plunged the Dagger into its face, then waited with ragged breath to see if the Sands of Time would grace me with another vision. Sure enough, once all the sand had settled the floor, it began to rush towards me and encase me in its tantalizing whirlwind.

The first thing my eyes beheld in the swirling sand was the vizier, pacing about the Tower of Dawn, disregarding the piles of treasure that would make the richest shah's eyes gleam with greed. He shouted angrily to the sand creatures that slumped in the shadows, though I could not hear a word he said. Perhaps he grew irked that they had not brought him his prize as of yet. The vizier's choleric face faded into Farah's, which held a look of concentration as she slipped down through a crack in the stone floor. I watched as she picked her way through a narrow passage where the tremors had broken a fissure through the stone floor, then pulled herself up to a ruined hallway and rushed into a small chamber lit by a flickering torch.

I awoke coughing and spluttering, water streaming down my face and through my soaked clothing, as someone dragged my limp body from the pool where I had just been standing. After a brief struggle, I pulled myself to my feet and Farah drew away from me. As usual, her face pinched into a scowl when she looked at me. "What on _earth_ were you doing?" she demanded, hands on hips. "If I hadn't come to drag you out, you would have drowned, and _then_ where would we be?"

"I'm all right," I assured her in annoyance as I wrung out my shirt as best I could.

For a brief moment, her gaze softened. "I know."

Without another word, Farah started towards the door that would lead out of this room, and I hastened to follow. We would have to find our way back through the maze of steamy rooms to leave the baths behind, though I suspected that would take us far out of our way. Yet as we made our way past the lowest pool, we passed a wooden door set inconspicuously in the corner. Farah stepped up to it eagerly and attempted to open it, but like many of the doors in this palace, it was locked. She shook it in frustration, and the splintering wood creaked in protest. "This door doesn't look so strong," she said, then turned to me eagerly. "Do you think you could smash it with your sword?"

"Who do you think I am?" I scoffed. "Rustam? Even with a sword, it would take more strength than I possess to knock a door off its hinges. Watch!" To prove my point, I swung my sword at the door, expecting it to bounce off with a resounding thump. Instead, the blade smashed through the wood, sending the door crashing to the floor in pieces. I stared at it in surprise, astonished that something so old would be kept in the sultan's palace.

Farah gazed at me with admiration. "You _do_ have the strength of Rustam!"

I neglected to point out that the door was so old it had practically fallen over of its own accord.

Through the doorway, we descended through a passageway of ancient, crumbling stone that sloped steeply downwards and occasionally was broken with steps carved into the rock and smoothed by the passage of many feet. The light grew dimmer with every step, and we had to feel our way carefully so as not to stumble. "Where are we?" Farah asked in the hollow darkness behind me.

"It is said the palace is built on the ruins of an even more ancient one," I mused, remembering the rumors I had heard. "I thought it a mere story."

When we finally emerged from the narrow passage, we found ourselves on one side of a vast, dim cavern filled with dust. The ceiling stretched too far above us to make out, and the ground was broken into a treacherous mound of broken stone, not all of which looked like recent damage caused by the tremors. Deep fissures broke through the stone, threatening injury if one stepped into them unawares. Far away in the distance, I could see the warm, flickering light of a torch, beckoning us onward like the lodestar Al Kaukab.

"Now what do we do?" Farah demanded, gazing with apprehension at the broken expanse that faced us.

I took several steps forward, halting at the first fissure that crossed our path and peering down its narrow opening. Several feet down, it widened enough that two men could walk abreast, though I knew I could never hope to squeeze through the narrow portion at the top. I recognized it from my last vision, so I turned to Farah and said, "Go down that crack; it will lead you to the other side. Wait for me there."

Even in the scant light of the cavern, I could see the confusion on Farah's face. "What are you talking about? How can you know where it will lead?"

"Just trust me," I said impatiently, already turning to consider how _I_ would reach the other side.

Farah circled around to step into my line of sight, crossing her arms. "How do I know you're not simply trying to get rid of me? What if I fall to my death?"

"You won't," I assured her in exasperation. I could see she would not be satisfied, however, so I grudgingly told her, "I...see things, all right? The sand shows me, and my visions always come to pass."

Farah's eyes narrowed to hide her surprise. "So _that's_ why you're always falling over helplessly. And you actually _trust_ these visions? The sand is what brought such trouble upon us in the first place! What happened to 'I trust no one but myself'?" She lowered her voice in mimicry of a barrel-chested man that I did not find remotely amusing.

"You'll just have to test this vision out for yourself," I told her shortly, leaping lightly over the fissure. "Unless you think you can follow me." A large vertical slab of rock thrust upward at one end of a fissure far too wide to leap across. Testing it till I deemed it solid, I ran across the slab to reach the other side.

"All right, all right, I'll go!" Farah called irritably after me, and I heard her grumbling her way down into the fissure.

Picking my way carefully across the expanse of broken stone, I leapt across fissures and nearly fell down with the crumbling rock from time to time. The floor did not seem very stable, trembling beneath my feet as I trod upon it. Realizing this, I put my feet down as lightly and briefly as I could. At long last, I came within sight of the torch and saw that it stood in a small, brightly-lit chamber. The tremors that had shaken the palace with the opening of the Hourglass had ripped a jagged hole in the wall, through which I could now see Farah standing and waiting for me with her arms crossed. Just as I began to breathe easier, the ground began to cave away at my feet. Stumbling, I made a desperate lunge and managed to catch the very edge of the hole, while the stones I had been climbing over collapsed with a reverberating crash.

"You made it," Farah said sardonically.

"You sound so surprised," I snapped back, heaving myself up to stand by her side. How like Farah it was, to act as though I had not just risked my life to reach her side.

**Author's Note: Al Kaukab is the Persian name of star Beta Ursa Minoris, the second-brightest star in the Little Dipper constellation. It was once the pole star, functioning the same as our "North Star" for navigation.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Together we walked down a hallway leading out of the room, silence falling between us once again. We passed through a long room lined with racks of spears and scimitars, and I wondered whether we had entered the wing of the palace that housed the guards. Small, high windows shone light upon the dusty floor, showing that the horrific night had fled at last. How I wished I could believe this had all been naught but a dream!

A hallway stretched on after this armory, and the only rooms branching off from it were rooms where the soldiers would sleep in long rows. At the end of the hallway stood a heavy wooden door, for once unlocked. Even as I opened the door, Farah rushed past me, as if to say that I was slowing her down. Yet as soon as she slipped through the doorway, a thunderous roar reached my ears, and my blood turned cold. As fast as I was able, I raced after Farah and whipped out my weapons.

We stood in the soldiers' mess hall. The smell of lamb and saffron still wafted from the kitchen. Scant hours ago, the long wooden tables scattered about the room had been filled with men, joking in camaraderie over their evening meal. Just as my father's men do back home in Saraf, at ease because they think themselves safe within the palace walls, with no enemy to fight. How could they know the enemy was already among them? For the men that had once been strong, healthy soldiers for the sultan now fought with hunched backs and distorted limbs, their bodies filled with sand that glowed from their gaping jaws.

Farah frantically stumbled backwards, nocking an arrow to the string as quickly as she could. But a large creature rushed forward much too fast for her to take aim and fire, so I stepped in front of her and swung my sword with enough force to break the advancing creature's spear in two. As it reeled back, I pressed the advantage and thrust it onto the floor, where I stabbed its face with the Dagger to retrieve its sand. As I straightened up, another fell to the floor across the room, stuck with several of Farah's arrows.

I began to run towards this fallen creature, but three charged towards me, brandishing scimitars and howling like the wind in a sand storm. I paused only long enough to upturn one of the long tables with a crash, toppling them amid piles of uneaten food. I hastily plunged the Dagger into the fallen creature, which had just begun to rise again, then whirled around to face the rest of the creatures. As I watched, carefully advancing, the fallen creatures laboriously picked themselves up. One stumbled as it lumbered towards me, an arrow appearing in one shoulder. The creature behind it, seeing me approach, let out an enraged cry and swung its scimitar heedlessly, cutting its fellow in half. I rushed in, hoping to defeat this creature and take both their sands, but it moved faster than I expected and forced me to parry its blow instead. I could feel the strength of its strike all the way up my arm to my wounded shoulder.

The creature raised its scimitar over its head to knock the sword from my hands, but I swiftly flipped backwards and the blade crashed onto the ground where my feet had rested but moments before. Quickly changing direction, I leapt onto the blunt edge of the scimitar before the creature could raise the heavy weapon again, and from there I leapt onto its shoulders. Stabbing the creature in the back, I leapt to the other one, which had finally picked itself off the ground and started towards Farah. I knocked it to the ground as I landed on it, then sucked its sands up and whirled around, my blade at the ready as I heard the wounded creature approach.

I parried several blows the angered brute rained upon me, taking several steps backwards until I felt stairs beneath my feet. I felt a trickle of dread run through me, realizing I would have a great disadvantage if my enemy obtained the higher ground. Suddenly I heard the eager grunts of a sand creature laboring up the stairs behind me. I desperately held my ground, deflecting my foe's strikes until I heard a triumphant howl from behind. I quickly ducked and rolled to the side, as the two creatures swung at each other simultaneously. One creature swung its sword and decapitated the other, even as it stabbed its own sword into its chest. Both creatures dropped to the ground and I drew their sands with relief as the room fell silent once more. Breathing hard, I sheathed my weapons and collapsed wearily onto the top stair. Before my heart ceased pounding, the familiar sands whirled around me once more.

When the sands converged on me, in my vision appeared a long stone bridge connecting two parts of the palace. Farah ran out onto it, but slowed to a halt in the middle and looked upward. A fearful look came into her eyes, and she pointed her bow up at a flock of large, glowing birds. She shot two, but the rest swarmed around her, pecking and tearing her flesh from her bones. She tried to beat them away, but they clung to her like burrs. I cried out and raced towards her, but then the stones of the bridge fell away beneath me and I descended into darkness.

I awoke with a shudder of dread. I could not let this vision come true. When I rose from the floor and brushed myself off, I saw Farah scouring the room to retrieve her arrows. She saw I was awake, and approached with an unimpressed look in her eyes. "So what has the great prophet foreseen _this_ time?" she said acidly.

"Your imminent death," I retorted sharply, not wishing to go into all the gruesome details. "But you needn't concern yourself, O Discerning One; it will not happen in this room."

Farah did not seem to believe a word I said, for she scowled and turned away. "If your masterful divination is correct and we are safe here for the time being, I suggest we find something to eat. We've not had a moment's rest all night, and unless you have _foreseen_ it, we have no way of knowing how long it may take us to reach the Tower of Dawn."

I followed her to the table I had overturned, which had been laden with many dishes of food for the soldiers to eat. The food now lay smashed and spilled across the sandy floor, but Farah and I squatted down and picked out edible morsels. A few grains of sand mixed with the food, but I realized as I ate that I was so hungry it mattered little how it tasted. Looking over at Farah mopping up a sandy pile of food with a piece of bread, I mused that we both were born of royalty, yet now we scrounged for food like the lowest beggar. The Sands of Time cared not who we were, bringing low sultan and commoner alike.

Still watching Farah, I noticed how the sunlight shone through the windows and glistened on her black hair, illuminating her grimy yet attractive face. Even as she ate off the dirty floor, she moved with a grace only true princesses possess. Farah felt my gaze on her, and looked up suspiciously. "What are you looking at?"

"Nothing." I hastily turned my attention to washing down my meal with what little wine had not been spilt upon the floor.

When we rose from our scanty meal, I crossed to the door leading out of the mess hall. Part of a stone staircase that led up to a balcony above us had crumbled away, and in front of the closed door lay a large section, too heavy to move. Looking up the face of the wall to where the stairs had broken off, I was fairly certain I could make it up there. I clambered onto a section of the stairs that had fallen next to the wall, and ran along the wall to a ledge. Perching precariously on this small space, I located gaps in the old bricks of the wall to use in my climb.

"You know I can't climb like you can," Farah called up rather wistfully.

"How did you know I was _just_ going to lend you a hand?" I cried over my shoulder, feigning surprise. "Does this mean _you're_ having visions now?"

Finally I managed to climb awkwardly onto the last few stairs that led up to the balcony. Looking around, I saw that the walls were hung with long tapestries bearing the sultan's symbol. By ripping these tapestries into strips and tying them together, I fashioned a makeshift rope and dropped it over the side. "Can you do nothing for yourself?" I sighed as I helped her up.

Farah frowned and attempted to brush the copious amounts of dust off her skirt. "I wasn't born of the desert like you Persians, all hardened and angry. I didn't sweat and cavort on the training grounds like _some_ people." She straightened her back and looked at me loftily. "My lifestyle was much more..._refined._"

"I think you mean 'spoiled,'" I scoffed airily. "You probably spent all your time lounging in the gardens, trailing your fingers in the wells-"

"The wells of my homeland are famed for their clear, cold water!" she broke in defensively.

I smirked mockingly at her. "Perhaps less time admiring your wells and more time guarding your walls, and you wouldn't be here."

Before she could retort, I turned on my heel and strode over to an iron door like a portcullis. Farah followed, muttering under her breath.

Through the iron bars we could see stairs leading down to a wooden bridge stretching across to another section of the palace. Below the bridge, a familiar courtyard met our eyes, the early morning sunlight glistening on the iron bars of a gigantic cage. "We're above the zoo," I mused, turning my eyes in the direction I remembered seeing the Tower of Dawn from that courtyard. I could not see the tower from where we stood, but I knew it loomed above us. "We'll need to cross that bridge." I glanced at Farah, who nodded.

The lever next to the door that would most likely have lifted the iron bars and let us pass could not be moved, no matter how hard I strained at it. "Now what?" I demanded, wiping the sweat from my brow. Without a single word, Farah flattened herself on the ground and slipped beneath a small gap between the bottom of the door and the floor. I watched in surprise as she squeezed through the small space, then pulled the lever on the other side that caused the door to rise. "Yes, I was just going to suggest that," I said, walking calmly through. Her expression needn't have been so smug.

When we reached the bridge, I turned my gaze upwards. The Tower of Dawn loomed above us, still so far off. We had been trying to reach it for hours, and we were still so far away. How many hours more would we flee for our lives, desperately striving to put things right again? With the palace in such a state of disrepair from the destructive tremors, there was little chance that we would simply find a staircase that would lead us directly to our destination.

The bridge led to a tall watch tower, where soldiers would watch for the sultan's enemies. If only they could have seen the peril I brought upon us and warned us all before it was too late. Thankfully, the stairs leading up to the top of the tower were largely intact, and we swiftly climbed the tower, hoping to draw nearer to the Tower of Dawn. When we reached the top, however, we found that the parapet leading to the next watch tower had crumbled away, leaving a gaping hole in the wall and a gap much too great to leap across. The morning sun shone down through the hole, and a warm breeze swept in from the desert. I felt the wind on my left arm, and looked down to find that the sleeve, torn in the numerous battles I had fought that night, now hung in a useless tatter. I ripped it off, ruefully inspecting my scratched arms. I had now lost both sleeves, and the fine cloth had long ago been ruined by dust and blood.

When I looked up again, Farah had already left my side, approaching another barred gate on the other side of the tower. "If you can fit under _this_ gate," I said, joined her, "I'll really be impressed."

With a scathing glance sent my way, she did not even attempt to slide under the gate, but slipped through a jagged crack next it and opened it from the other side. Stepping through, I hastily told her, "I knew that crack was there. I just wanted to see if you knew."

Ignoring me, she turned and began to cross the wide stone bridge that led to another section of the palace. With a lurch of my heart, I recognized this bridge as the one I had seen in my vision. The one where the birds had devoured Farah while she still lived. My gaze flashed to several enormous black vultures perched alertly along the bridge, watching her with glittering eyes. As one shifted, a flash of gold shone out between the feathers. Farah saw it as well, and began to sprint towards the other edge.

"Keep running!" I called to her, hurrying forward with sword in hand. The birds deliberated for a moment, then took to the air and began to soar in my direction. When the first one drew near, I swung the Dagger up and plunged it through its throat and into the bird's skull. Ducking under the second, I swung my sword but only tore a few feathers off the third swift creature. I whirled around as one of the birds let out a cry, yet it had already fallen to the ground, pinned by one of Farah's arrows.

As I drew the dead birds' sands into the Dagger, I felt a sharp beak scratch across my arm, and swung my sword in retaliation. Another bird fell croaking to the ground, and the last one pulled back out of reach of my blade. It soared towards Farah, who quickly shot at it. The arrow flew wide in her panic, as did the next one, and the deadly bird had already begun to dive for her before she finally managed to shoot it down.

After gathering all the birds' sands, I started across to join Farah. I heard the sand beginning to scrape across the stones towards me and, remembering how the bridge had broken beneath me in my previous vision, I ran with all my might towards Farah. "Look out!" she cried. I could feel the stones collapsing behind me, shaken loose by my pounding feet and the rushing sands. Farah held out a hand and pulled me swiftly onto the far side just as the rest of the bridge fell with a resounding crash to the courtyard far, far below. Before I could so much as glance down, the sand surrounded me once more.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

The visions in the swirling sand disturbed me greatly, for I saw myself wandering through the palace alone. I climbed over ruins and fought sand creatures, but saw no sign of Farah. I saw myself struggling through a swift-moving river, and this confused me as well. Where in this palace would I find a river?

I woke curled upon a pile of sand, dangerously close to the edge where the bridge had broken off. Cautiously, I sat up and looked for Farah. At first I feared that my vision had already come true and I was alone, but soon I saw that she had merely squeezed herself beneath a metal gate identical to the one at the other end of the bridge but for the debris that lay behind it, as though the roof of this tower had caved in. The fall of the rubble had bent the metal bars towards the bottom and broken a hole large enough for Farah, but I knew at a glance that I would never fit through it.

"The switch to open it is broken," Farah announced as a greeting.

"Very funny," I said impatiently, stepping closer. "Come on, open the gate."

Farah's eyes widened earnestly. "No, I mean it! It's really broken!"

I sighed and ran a hand through my sand-speckled hair. Looking around and considering our predicament, I noticed that this tower had fared much worse than the one we had just come through; it stood like a cracked shell, holes gaping in the sides and debris cluttering the inside all the way to the bottom. "All right," I finally said. "You go on and try to find a way to the bottom of this tower. I'll find another way down."

Farah looked at me doubtfully from the ruined tower. "I don't think you should do this."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "Is that concern I hear?"

Her face swiftly sharpened into a frown. "Caution."

"Sprinkled with concern," I added with a smirk.

Farah gave me a cool, long-suffering smile and said levelly, "You flatter yourself, Prince."

I let out a bark of derisive laughter. "You're a poor liar."

"Then perhaps I need more _practice._"

"Too much practice, and you'll turn into the vizier."

Farah's face instantly fell and all anger left her. "That's not funny," she said softly.

"Sorry," I hastily replied, realizing I had gone too far. "Well...I had better get going."

"Try not to take too long!" Farah called as she turned away, feigning cheer. It was all well for her, of course; she would not have to clamber around the curve of the tower, an inch from death at every moment.

I began my descent, sending bits of stone hailing down as I trod carefully on precarious balconies and inched downwards by gripping to the broken stones with only fingers and toes. As I clung like a vine to the side of the tower, I heard Farah's voice from a more stable balcony above me. "I'm up here!" she called, as if I had the attention to spare for her when I was moments from losing my grip and falling to my death. "Down below, there's a great open balcony. Come on, I'll show you."

"Easy for you to say," I muttered as her footsteps receded and left me alone with my struggles. How on earth did she expect show me anything when I was in such a position?

At last I reached a small balcony that trembled as I put my weight on it. From the other side of the courtyard below, a wide balcony stretched across the open space, nearly touching the tower. Even as the small balcony crumbled away beneath me, I leapt across the gap and landed on the sturdy stone with relief. I turned and saw a great hole previous tremors had broken in the side of the tower a few feet below where I stood, and among the tumbled debris, Farah stood like a red wildflower blooming in a wasteland. "Here I am," she called, waving to me.

"Stay there," I warned her, coming closer to the edge. "I'll come down to you." I gauged the distance, but my heart sank within me, for this portion of the wall was not as close to the balcony, and I could see that even I could not leap that far.

"Come on!" Farah urged impatiently.

"It's too far," I said grudgingly. "I can't jump it."

"You can do it!" She didn't understand; she thought this was a matter of nerve, not of sheer impossibility.

Anxiety led to anger, and I snapped at her, "If I fall to my death, will that convince you?"

"There's no need to get nasty." Farah sounded hurt, but she was too far away for me to make out her expression with certainty. Yet before I could apologize, she went on, "I think I know where I am. There's a corridor here with the same tiles as the baths; it must lead to them. Do you think you could find your way there?"

I rolled my eyes. I had never set foot in this palace before. How on earth was I to find the baths again in all this rubble? "Of course," I said sarcastically. "Finding my way to the baths from here should be easy."

Farah did not seem to hear my tone. "Good!" she said with satisfaction. "I'll meet you there."

"You certainly enjoy telling me what to do," I grumbled.

"Only because you're so good at following orders," she retorted.

"Don't press your luck."

With a disgusted sound, she disappeared into the shadows of the tower, leaving me to find my way to the baths on my own. I realized with some trepidation that my vision had just come true. Now I was alone. Would I ever see Farah again? I grew irritated with myself, and began to mutter under my breath to fill the sudden silence as I searched for a way onward. "I'll just ask the first sand creature I run into. 'Could you direct me to the baths, please? Oh, thank you.' 'Don't mention it, I used to be a bath attendant back when I was alive.'"

I mimicked Farah's voice as I climbed down the rest of the way to the courtyard at the foot of the tower. "'I'll meet you at the baths.' She orders me around as if I were a servant! But it's my own fault. With women, you need to show them you're in charge right from the start, or they'll walk all over you. I've been too indulgent. Probably because I felt sorry for her. Well, it stops now! From now on, she'll have to toe the line. That is, assuming I can find her." Abruptly, I realized I was talking to myself and pressed my lips together to stop. Again I found myself in this position, separated from Farah and risking my life to run around the palace and find her.

I passed through a gate into another debris-ridden courtyard. Many rooms lined the edge of the courtyard, but most of the walls and roofs now lay in piles on the ground. Looking upward, I saw a bird framed between the shattered walls, flying high above my head like a single grain of sand. I heard a distant shriek and more birds joined the first, beginning to descend sharply in my direction. Not eager to fight more of those vicious creatures, I hastened to find a way out of this courtyard. Spotting a gaping hole in one of the walls, I ducked through it to gain some shelter. I expected nothing but a small space from which I could formulate a plan, but instead I found an ancient passage sloping steadily downward. The stone beneath my feet was broken and covered with moss, but when I bent down to inspect it I could see it had been cut by man. Where did this passage lead? Why had it been covered up?

I set off down the passage, not knowing where it would lead but hoping that it would at least offer some shelter from the sand birds. I worried to myself that I was moving farther away from the baths rather than closer. What would happen to Farah if I never made it? She ought to have known better than to expect me to somehow find my way through this broken maze of a palace. "Oh, have you been waiting here all this time?" I muttered as I walked. "I didn't realize you meant _these_ baths. I went to the _other_ bath, all the way on the other side of the city. I had a lovely wash, and a rub with fragrant oils. Too bad _you_ weren't there."

As soon as I realized I had started talking to myself again, I fell silent. Farah and I never had much to say to one another, but the silence between us was different from the silence that pressed in on me in the dark, moist depths of the palace. This was a bleak, empty silence, like a desolate wasteland that I walked alone. I wanted that other silence.

Expecting some fantastic hidden secret, I was surprised that when the passage opened up at last into nowhere more amazing than a rough-walled underground cave. I could see a faint light shining off in the distance, and at my side rushed a swift stream. I set off in the direction of the light, hoping to find some way out of this cave without having to turn back the way I'd come. As I drew nearer and nearer to the source of the light, the walls opened out into a large cavern. The dim light flashed upon a waterfall rushing down the rocks far above me on the side, feeding the stream I had been following. I knew that if I fell into its depths I would be swept away, yet the stream had grown wider, and I knew I could not safely leap across it.

Squinting upward at the waterfall, I saw an ancient tree trunk extending from one side to another, creating a bridge. I wondered whether servants had been made to carry this heavy log all the way down here, or whether this stream had once been open to the air before some ancient king had built a palace over it. Whatever the case, I knew what I had to do. I climbed up the stone cliff over which the cataract spilled, till I reached the log bridge. Holding out my arms to keep my balance, I started across, stepping carefully on the damp wood.

My concentration was suddenly broken by the sound of a dozen beating wings. I froze and planted my feet carefully on the log, looking up in dismay to see a small cloud of bats winging their way towards me, their small bodies glowing with sand. It seemed that the sands had spread even here. Was there nowhere safe in this accursed palace? Carefully keeping my balance, I pulled out my weapons as the bats swarmed around me. Trying not to fall off the bridge, I swiped at them with sword and Dagger. A few small bodies fell from the air, but they moved almost too quickly for me to see. Many small scratches appeared on my arms as I shielded my face from their attacks, and I all but lost my balance once or twice, but at last I cut the last bat down and it fell towards the rushing waters below. I sheathed my blades again and was on the verge of crossing to safety when the sand from the bats' bodies rushed towards me.

I realized what would happen an instant before the sand hit me full in the chest. Even as I lost consciousness, I could feel my body falling down into the river. I heard a distant splash just before the rushing of the sand filled my ears. Though the bats had been unable to knock me off the bridge, their deaths had.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

What I saw in my vision filled me with more dread than I had felt the entire day. I bent over what seemed to be a bottomless chasm that faded into darkness, holding Farah's hand. She dangled over the abyss, her eyes filled with terror as I clung to her. I shouted something to her, but I could not hear what it was, and then her hand slipped from mine and she fell – down into that emptiness as black and cold as death.

"No!" I cried, jerking upward out of my trance, and it took me several breathless seconds to remember that it had been nothing more than a dream, and that not all of these visions had turned out exactly the way I had seen them. I had seen my own death countless times, yet so far I had always managed to avoid it. After all, I possessed the Dagger of Time. I patted the holster just to reassure myself, then looked around at my surroundings.

The stream deep beneath the palace had washed me down into the bottom of a deep well. I could feel the stream flowing by much more slowly than it had in the cave, and the dim light illuminated a pile of wet sand all around me. Standing up, I washed as much of it off as I could, then turned my gaze upward to the small patch of bright blue sky above my head. An ancient, warped bucket hung down several feet above me. Leaping up, I grasped the bucket, and though it creaked under my grip, the rope seemed strong. I pulled myself laboriously up the rope, bracing myself against the side of the well with my feet. The sunlight grew brighter as I ascended.

Finally I reached the top and heaved myself over the edge of the well. While I caught my breath, I looked around and saw that I had come up in a completely different section of the palace. The adornments seemed more ornate, and I hoped that meant I was on the right track. I stood on a large balcony covered with trees and plants, and a decorative archway led further into the palace. I hurried through, anxious to see if the baths were any closer than they had been. The lavishly decorated rooms, the skillfully carved chairs, the lush carpets on walls and floors, all passed by without my notice as I hurried through a succession of rooms and courtyards. Normally I would have marveled over how luxurious the furnishings were, or wonder what all these rooms were used for, but my vision had set a fire inside me. With every room I entered, I expected to see a hole in the floor and Farah dangling precariously from the edge, already beyond my help. I raced up a winding staircase, scarcely glancing at the beautiful marble statues or listening to hidden fountains of water tinkling all about me. Only when I reached a door at the top of the stairs and opened it did I stop.

The room smelled moist, and overlapping carpets and tasseled cushions covered the entire floor. A pool of steaming water lay invitingly in the middle of the room. However, I had little time to feel relieved that I had come at last to my destination, for a chaotic battle already raged in the room. Farah tried in vain to keep the many creatures back, but there was little she could do with only her bow. They had cornered her against the wall farthest from me, and after glancing around, I raced towards the throng as speedily as I could.

"Farah!" I cried, filled with both relief and anxiety. "Don't worry! I'm coming!"

Farah's head whipped around in my direction. "Is that you?" she called, but then had to raise her bow and try to fend off the nearest creature.

A burly creature turned around as it heard my footsteps, but I sliced through its gut and continued on my way, cutting through the unprepared creatures till I reached Farah's side. As I parried a former guard's blows, she shot a creature that lunged in my direction. "What _took_ you so long?" she demanded hotly.

Kicking my assailant in the face and drawing its sands before it could recover, I replied breathlessly, "Oh, just frolicking about the palace as I always do! And yourself?"

Farah whirled around with gritted teeth and shot down another creature that ran roaring towards her. "I've been relaxing-" She shot another arrow. "-Sipping tea and lounging on cushions with my new _friends._" Dodging a female creature's attack, she jabbed it with an arrow, then backed up till she could shoot it in the chest. "They may not be much to look at, but they have such _wonderful_ personalities!"

"Sounds like I should get to know them!" I cried, flipping backwards and plunging in the Dagger next to the arrow.

The creatures pressed their attack, and we had to concentrate on defending ourselves. Yet as I stood by Farah's side, knocking away the creatures' blades before they could touch her, I felt as though everything was right again. Fending off creatures that sought my bloody death, side-by-side with a ragged princess, had become normal to me. Perhaps I had grown too accustomed to this new lifestyle.

I saw that many of the creatures that attacked us were spindly females and wondered how many of the sultan's harem had fallen beneath my blades. Though submissive in life, these creatures now pressed in on me, stabbing with knives or any other sharp objects they could find.

Suddenly the creatures fell to the ground with almost feline shrieks, and I saw a broad-shouldered sand creature in the back, whirling a barbed chain around with little concern for its fellows. I darted forward, raising the Dagger to gather the sands from the fallen creatures, but before my blow could find its target, the chain swung my way and wrapped itself around my arm. The little knives that made up the chain embedded themselves into my flesh, down to the bone, like a thousand tiny tongues of scorching fire. I let out a scream of pain, and the Dagger fell from my limp fingers as the pain clouded my eyes.

The sand creatures swarmed forward, thinking I would be an easy kill with one arm so severely wounded, and Farah said something in a horrified voice that the blood pounding in my ears muffled. Dropping my sword and pushing aside the pain as best I could, I hastily groped for the Dagger. I felt a tug on the chain, tearing through my flesh with an agonizing ripping sound, but I grasped the Dagger by the hilt and pressed the button with the last of my strength. Swiftly the agony receded and the sand creatures retraced their steps.

I let go in time to see the creatures falling under the attack of the chain, and swiftly leapt backward to remove myself from immediate danger. The creature swung the chain in a wider circle, and I saw that this time it would hit Farah, who did not know what would happen and had not moved back with me. Lunging forward, I knocked the sharp tip of the chain away from Farah with the Dagger, but the thin blade soared towards me instead, and before I could duck out of the way, it glanced off my forehead. Of more concern to me, it also twisted the Dagger from my grip, sending it sailing over my head, flipping over and over. Casting all caution aside, I jumped up to catch it again.

As the familiar hilt landed in my palm again, I abruptly felt a rushing sensation and all my vision turned gold, as though the glowing sands contained within the blade had entered my eyes. I turned to swipe at the nearest sand creature, which stood dangerously close, but I had barely begun to move when the creature fell beneath my blades. Turning to the next, I spun as swiftly as the winds of a sandstorm. In utter astonishment, I raised my sword, and before the creature had even begun to turn around, my sword swung down and sliced it in two. I began to run across the room, and in two strides, rushed to the far side and back again. The sand creatures had not even begun to react, so before they could lift their blades to defend themselves, I dashed around them, slaying them with more ease than squashing an ant underfoot. The power of the Sands of Time rushed through me, and I felt in those swift seconds that I could rush all the way to the end of the world and not grow weary.

But all too soon, the surge of power and golden light faded away and time resumed its normal course. I stood in the center of the room as all the creatures collapsed into dust and one of Farah's arrows clinked against the wall where a creature had previously stood. She looked around in surprise. "What...happened...?"

Before I could attempt to explain what had just occurred, or even understand myself, the sands swarmed towards me like flies to a carcass, knocking me over onto the cushioned floor. Through the golden haze of the vision, I saw the vizier pacing angrily back and forth before the Hourglass amongst the piles of treasure in the Tower of Dawn, and even in my trance the thought struck me that I had nearly forgotten about him, so consumed had I been with staying alive and finding ways to return to Farah's side. The vizier shouted orders to the creatures around him, but he seemed distraught. In the middle of his orders, he was overcome with a coughing fit, and this only seemed to increase his agitation. He was growing desperate, I realized. Desperate for the Dagger that I held. The vizier resumed his pacing, but suddenly the sand that still remained in the great Hourglass by his side glowed even brighter, then just as abruptly subsided. The vizier hurried to one of the large windows looking out over the entire palace, and saw a tiny flash of gold far below in a courtyard. Somehow I knew that was the Dagger, glowing fiercely and pushing time forward with great speed. The vizier gestured towards the speck, shouting orders to his minions.

My vision seemed to sweep down through the air like a great bird, till I found myself in a massive hall lined with books. Opening a thick red book with an astrolabe inscribed on the front, I found a key between the pages. I picked up the key and began to turn with it clenched in my hand, but then I felt the vision slipping away again.

As I woke, before opening my eyes, I gradually became aware of my entire body aching from everything that happened to me since setting foot in the sultan's palace. Yet I realized that I was not lying on hard floor and gritty sand as usual. Instead I lay on something soft, and gentle fingers stroked my hair, keeping carefully clear of the cut on my forehead. Then a soft voice reached my ears, whispering as though to herself, "Don't leave me...my love... Please don't leave me...not again..."

I knew only one person who could be saying this, and my eyes flew open to find my head in Farah's lap, her face bent over me with a gentler look than I had ever seen. We stared at each other for a moment. Then, suppressing a smirk, I asked suspiciously, "What did you call me?"

Farah leapt to her feet, letting my head fall painfully to the hard floor. Color rose in her cheeks, and she opened her mouth as though to answer smartly, then closed it again, seemingly at a loss for words.

Wincing and rubbing my head, I picked myself up off the floor. "Ah, a miracle!" I cried. "I've silenced the princess!"

"It doesn't matter," she said quickly, turning away from me and attempting to regain her composure. "The important thing is, I know how we can reach the Tower of Dawn."

"Of course. The Hourglass." Inwardly, I shook myself. Our priority should be reaching the Hourglass before we were killed or found out by the vizier. "All right, but this time stay with me, and pay attention. Can't spend all day chasing after you." I forced a measure of anger into my voice, unwilling to admit the way my heart beat harder than ever at the thought of what her words implied.

Farah looked a little hurt, but all she said was, "We should eat first. I found a few things lying around." She led the way over to a low table, where I found a small assortment of cakes, _halva,_ and tea waiting. The tea was cold and the sweets did little to fill our bellies, but it was better than nothing, and I knew satisfactory meals could not be found in this ruined, deserted place.

After our light refreshment, Farah led the way through a number of interconnecting rooms to a door she claimed led in the direction of the Tower. As so many others had been, it was locked. I noticed that a jagged hole had been cut out of the bottom, the wood ripped and scratched around the edges of the hole as though sand creatures had tried to gnaw their way through. "Well?" I asked, looking pointedly at the obvious hole, which was no smaller than the various cracks she had slipped through before. "What are you waiting for?"

"I'm afraid." Farah's voice dripped with sarcasm as some of our cakes had dripped with honey, and she gave me a scornful look. "What if I get into trouble and you'll have to come _chasing_ after me?"

I covered my eyes with one hand and sighed in exasperation. Why did she have to make everything so difficult? "Please..."

Farah's eyebrows rose in mock surprise. "Do you mean to say you actually need my help?"

Clenching my teeth, I looked away and said grudgingly, "Yes." The only reason I had chased after her in the first place had been because without her my task would be much more difficult. Yet I hated having to admit it aloud.

"Oh. And here I thought I was slowing you down. In that case..." With a triumphant little smirk, she flattened herself on the ground and slid skillfully through the hole.

I heard the lock click and stepped through the door, finding myself in an open walkway. At the other end stood a gate, and Farah was already slipping between the narrow bars. While she located the mechanism to open them, I muttered to myself, mimicking her higher voice, "'I'm afraid! What if I get into trouble?'"

When the gate began to open and I stepped through, she met me with her arms crossed. "There you are," she said sardonically. "Are you sure I'm not slowing you down?"

"All right, all right..." I sighed tiredly, and together we continued on. How much longer would it take to reach our goal? How much longer must I endure her constant nagging comments?

**Author's Note: _Halva_ is a traditional Middle Eastern dessert. See its Wikipedia article for more information.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

I could see the Tower of Dawn rising almost directly before us, yet still so far off. Many buildings and courtyards still lay between it and us. We headed towards a doorway at the far end of the path, which led into another section of the palace. Down several branching hallways, we emerged into an enormous room, every wall filled from floor to ceiling with shelf upon shelf of books. A few seemed to have fallen to the floor in the tremors, but most still sat on their dusty shelves. There were wooden desks for scribes to copy out ancient, crumbling texts, and comfortable chairs for reading. It was hard to tell whether the dust lying in thick layers all over the room came from the tremors when the Hourglass was opened, or whether no one had set foot in here for many long years. I could not be sure, but I thought this looked like the same hall I had seen in my vision.

"The Hall of Learning..." Farah murmured, walking out into the center of the room and looking up at the great cracks in the ceiling that let golden sunlight shine down on us. "We must have come out the wrong side of the baths. We'll need to go back through the royal palace."

I let out a mirthless chuckle "What happened to '_I_ know how we can reach the Tower of Dawn'?" I pointed to a single door that broke the endless rows of books. "Maybe this will lead to a more direct route."

Neither of us were very surprised when we found the door locked. "Why must every way forward be blocked?" I demanded, angrily shaking the handle of the door.

"Perhaps the vizier has put these obstacles in our way so we won't be able to reach him," Farah suggested absently, inspecting the walls around the door for cracks that she might fit through.

I stepped back from the door, allowing her to continue her scrutiny, and found my eyes drawn to her shiny black hair falling down the back of her smooth neck. I could still hear her voice murmuring softly, "my love." I _knew_ she had said it; I hadn't dreamed it. At least...I thought I hadn't. It was quite natural, really. Her kingdom had been conquered, and she had nothing, no one to protect her. She needed me. I could see it in the way she looked at me. All I'd have to do is reach out, and take her hand...and she would be mine.

Slowly I realized that she had turned around to face me again. "Please don't look at me like that," she said softly.

"Like what?" I hastily said, shaking myself and turning back to the door. "Do you see this odd symbol on the door?" I pointed to an outline of an astrolabe carved into the door.

"What do you suppose it means?" she mused, frowning at it.

"I saw it in my vision," I said hesitantly, the words sounding awkward when spoken aloud. "We will find the key in a thick red book with this same symbol."

To my relief, Farah did not scoff at what I had claimed to see, but instead looked up at the books towering above us on every wall. "How on earth are we to find _one_ book among all these?" she asked, a measure of scorn for the task ahead of us entering her voice. But at least she seemed to trust my word.

"Not by standing here despairing." I started towards one daunting wall of books, and Farah went with a sigh to another one. So began one of the most rigorous experiences I had gone through yet. All we had to do was climb up and down the ladders set into the bookcases and examine every red book we could find. Often our hopes were raised and we thought we had found it, only to see that the book was thinner than the one I had seen, or that it did not have the astrolabe on its cover. I was not leaping and fighting and dodging death by a mere hair's breadth, yet I soon found myself exhausted and did not want to hold another book in my hands till the day I died. It seemed as though every single book that had ever been written in the entire history of the world sat upon the sultan's shelves.

"Listen to this." Farah's voice echoed from across the room. "_Of what use is reason against the power of love? Love is life. So if you want to live, die in love. Die in love if you want to stay __alive._"

I forcefully shoved another book back on its shelf. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"I thought you'd like it," Farah said tartly.

"If you want to be _useful,_" I snapped, climbing a few more rungs on my ladder, "try finding a book that tells us how to get to the Tower of Dawn!"

"This isn't that kind of game," she said airily.

"Game? You think this is a _game?_" Yet she made no reply.

Several minutes later, her voice drifted down from somewhere above my head, reading another passage. "_Then Rustam spake unto Saum and said, "O Pehliva, I rejoice in that I am sprung from thee, for my desires are not after the feast, neither do I covet sleep or rest. My heart is fixed upon valor, a horse do I crave and a saddle, a coat of mail and a helmet, and my delight is in the arrow. Thine enemies will I vanquish, and may my courage be like unto thine._"

"Are you mocking me?" I asked suspiciously.

"And what made you think I was referring to _you?_" Farah replied loftily. "Truly, the Persians are as haughty as the tales tell. It might have reminded me of myself: _my delight is in the arrow._"

"A pity your delight can't manifest itself in greater skill."

A loud thump declared that Farah had slammed her book shut. I chuckled softly to myself and continued my search.

Finally, when I had climbed almost to the ceiling, I pulled out a thick book that felt familiar in my hands. Sure enough, a gold astrolabe shone out at me from its cover, and when I opened the book, I found wedged within its pages a small iron key. I called to Farah, and we hurried back down to the door. I breathed a sigh of relief when the key clicked in the lock, and we could continue on our way. We had already wasted far too much time in that infernal library.

We stepped into a tall tower with a ceiling painted black and speckled with stars, from which hung many colored spheres. The sultan's observatory, where his wise men could watch the sky for portents. I wondered if the stars had shown them any indication of the destruction I would wreak upon their home. A wide stone staircase led up to the top of the tower, while next to the foot of the stairs a door had collapsed from a fall of rubble. "I think I can make it through," Farah said when we came closer, pointing to a narrow gap in the side. She slid through while I stood wondering how _I _would make it through. There was no other way out of this tower.

"This hallway seems to point in the right direction," Farah called through the rubble. "There's a rope hanging down here. I think it leads to somewhere up in the tower."

"I'll see if I can find it." I hurried up the tall staircase and came panting to the top, where the spheres hung around me like strange-colored fruit. After a few moments' inspection, I found a trapdoor in the floor, and opened it to find a long shaft that led all the way down the tower to where Farah stood as a tiny red speck beneath me. Sure enough, a rope hung all that way, attached to a metal ring just below the trapdoor. I pulled off the strip of cloth hung about my waist and looped it around the rope, holding it in my hands so I would not burn them on the rope.

"Here I come!" I called, and let myself drop down the shaft, sliding along the rope. The descent was long, and I had time to appreciate the swooping sensation in my chest. I let out a whoop as exhilaration momentarily brushed aside all anxiety. Several feet from the floor, however, the fraying rope snapped in two, and I landed gracelessly on the floor at Farah's side.

"Having fun?" Her sarcasm could not hide her amusement.

Wincing slightly, I retied the cloth about my waist as we continued on through the hallway. Turning a corner, we saw that part of the floor had broken away, leaving a large hole with broken stones at the bottom. I ran along the wall, which seemed to still be intact, to the other side, intending to find some way for Farah to get across. But she had other ideas.

"Do you think I can jump it?" she asked, backing up to get a running start.

I looked down apprehensively at the hole. It did not seem quite as large as some of the ones I'd jumped across before, but still I didn't think she would be able to make it. Her face, however, showed she was determined to do it. "Go on, try!" I called in a voice I attempted to make optimistic. "What's the worst that can happen?" Nervously, I held out a hand for her.

She snorted scornfully at this gesture, however, and ran swiftly forward. With a great leap, she threw herself across the great hole. My breath caught in my throat as her limbs began to flail; she would not reach the other side. Too late, I realized I did not have the Dagger ready to reverse any mistakes, so I desperately reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her to safety. "There you go," I sighed with relief, my heart pounding wildly.

She looked up at me, our faces inches from each other, and though she seemed shaken by her close call, still she attempted to make light of the situation. "Such a _noble_ prince," she said sardonically.

"Such an _elegant_ princess," I returned.

Finally, she stepped away from me, wearing a familiar sarcastic smile. "How taken you were with my plight, eagerly leaping to assist the endangered beauty."

"Who said you were a beauty?"

Farah quirked a skeptical eyebrow. "There must be a reason why you can't take your eyes off me."

The smirk immediately fell from my face. I stammered for a reply, finally spluttering, "I...I have to keep an eye on you! There's no telling what trouble you'll get into next."

With a knowing smile, Farah turned and sauntered further down the hallway. At the other end, a set of stairs led down into a large courtyard filled with greenery and ornamental pools of water – and filled with sand creatures, as well. Farah and I pulled out our weapons, and just before we stepped into the courtyard, we exchanged a look. "Be careful," she said.

"_You_ be careful," I returned emphatically.

I could tell at a glance that the sheer number of the creatures would make this battle difficult indeed, and many of them were burly guards with hefty scimitars. I would only make my way through this battle with much toil and trouble. Yet the Tower of Dawn stood directly in front of us, and I knew we had to make our way through this courtyard. As I stepped out of the shelter of the doorway and the creatures came howling our way, I remembered the Dagger's power I had discovered in the previous battle, and I wondered if I could replicate it here.

When the first creature drew near, I sheathed my sword and flipped the Dagger from one hand to the other, so that it whirled through the air and landed in my palm. Just as I had hoped, my eyes glowed golden again and I moved with the speed of the wind, tearing through the courtyard like a small hurricane, devastating the sand creatures wherever I found them. Before Farah even had time to let loose her second arrow, the creatures dissolved into piles of sand. I watched her look around in surprise as I fought to catch my breath.

"How do you do that?" she demanded.

"The Dagger-" I began, but then the sands whirled towards me as fast as I had whirled around the courtyard, smothering my voice completely. My visions disturbed me even more greatly than all the things I had seen before. The nightmarish sights converged on me in a confusing jumble till I could make out nothing more than blood, death, and pain. I could almost feel the blood streaming from me and the flesh being torn from my bones, which cracked and split and twisted, crumbling to dust in a pool of my own blood. When I woke I was nearly surprised to find myself intact and unharmed. Yet as I stood and looked at the Tower of Dawn looming before us, I remembered that the vizier could see when I used the Dagger to speed up time. Even now, he was most likely sending his troops down to meet us in combat. Moving swiftly was useful, but not at the expense of revealing us to our enemy. I would have to be careful when I used it in future.

"We need to get moving," I said tersely to Farah, who already stood at my side.

"Your vision?" she asked with a worried look. She seemed to have accepted that my visions spoke the truth.

"I saw blood and death," I said, leading the way across the courtyard, "and that is one future I would wish to change."

At the other end of the courtyard, we approached the doorway only to find that the ceiling had caved in, blocking off the room beyond almost completely. As ever, Farah managed to squeeze through the rubble. "I think I can see a way through to the next courtyard!" she called back to me.

"All right. I'll meet you there." I stepped back, looking up at the wall rising before me to plan my route.

"How on earth will you manage that?" she asked incredulously.

"I don't know!" I retorted sharply. "I'm working it out as I go." After that, there was too much stone between us to carry on the conversation, so we fell silent. I grasped a tapestry hanging down the side of the wall and used it like a rope to climb up to a window ledge. From there I could reach a flag pole, from which I swung up to a balcony. As I hurried through the ornate room inside to a window on the opposite wall, I noticed a tapestry depicting a prince's wedding and found myself thinking aloud.

"I could marry her. After all, she is a Maharajah's daughter. A conquered one, but still, her blood is royal. Besides, what better way to tame her insolence?" Chuckling to myself, I tore the tapestry down and tied several more together to hang out the window like a rope. "It's not so bad for a woman to have a little spirit. It's a challenge!" I felt rather self-conscious as I climbed down my makeshift rope and found Farah at the bottom. She did not seem to have heard my words – how could she, with so much distance between us? – yet I could not help looking at her differently. Once the possibility had occurred to me, I could not quite shake it off.

"There you are," Farah said, tapping her foot ever so patiently.

I forced myself to set aside these pointless ruminations. There would be time enough for that once we had returned the Dagger of Time to its rightful place. "Come on," I said. "It can't be much further."

We could see the Tower looming above the rooftops directly ahead, so we headed for a door in a wall in that direction and found stairs leading up to the parapet at the top. From this vantage point, we could look out across the enormous palace and the sand stretching to the horizon, but what drew our eyes was the Tower rising above us. It looked closer than ever before, and for the first time I noticed clouds, dark as night even in the noonday sun, swirling in an ominous spiral around the top of the Tower.

"Look!" Farah cried. "We're on a bridge to the Tower of Dawn!"

We hurried to a smaller tower at the end of the parapet, but it had been blocked off by steel bars, no doubt set there by the vizier to give himself added protection. I thought even Farah would not be able to squeeze through the narrow gaps between the bars, but she slipped through after only a few moment's struggle. She hurried to the lever that would open the gate, but though she heaved at it with all her might, she could not seem to move it. Finally she admitted defeat. "I can't open the gate, but I can see a staircase. I'll meet you in the courtyard down below."

I nodded, and as she turned to leave, I called after her, "Be careful on the stairs!" I turned to run back the way I had come. Perhaps there was another door that would lead to Farah's courtyard. Yet Farah relied far too much on my ability to traverse the dangerous ruins. One day, I would have to teach her that I was not invincible, even with the Dagger of Time. This impetuosity would be the death of her, and most likely myself as well.

As I ran towards the other end of the parapet, I could feel the stones trembling beneath my feet. I pitched forward as the floor gave way beneath me with an earth-shattering crumbling. I could hear Farah desperately calling to me, and as I fell my hands fumbled for the Dagger at my belt. Then I hit a stone wall with my wounded shoulder and let out a cry. I could feel myself breaking through something that felt like a floor, but all was darkness and confusion, so I could not see to what depths I fell. Then my head hit stone and I knew no more.

**Author's Note: The excerpt Farah reads is taken from the _Shahname,_ or _Epic of Kings_ by Ferdowsi, translated by Helen Zimmerman. It is an account of ancient Persian legends.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

Slowly, my consciousness returned to me and I picked myself from the floor where I had fallen. My head pounded, but the only blood on my head had already dried, matting my hair. I inspected the rest of my body for injury and saw that other than numerous bruises, I sported a gash across my chest from when I had scraped along a wall in my descent. My shirt hung from me in useless tatters, so I pulled it off and used the rags to clean my wounds as best I could and change the bandage around my shoulder. I was relieved to discover that I was still in possession of my sword and the Dagger.

Only after I had assured myself that I was still intact did I take any real look at my surroundings. Looking upward, I saw beams of late afternoon sunlight shining down on me from far above, where I had broken through several weak wooden floors. I could not see the sun to guess at how long I had remained unconscious, but I knew there was no time to waste. I needed to return to Farah as quickly as possible. Looking around, I saw that I sat amidst the rubble from the collapsed ceiling, in a large room with dark, grime-streaked walls. Old straw and the rotting remains of food that had never been picked up littered the cold stone floor. Lining the four walls of the room were cold bars marking out cramped cells that contained chains attached to the walls, some still locked about the wrists or ankles of long-dead skeletons. A stink wafted towards me from all quarters, the stink of death and decay. I could see stains old and new upon the floor, stains that looked like blood from executions or unutterable torments carried out here behind bars.

In my father's palace was a prison much like this. I had never set foot inside, never even thought about what must take place here. And now, here I was, a prisoner seeking an escape. Picking myself out of the rubble, I moved closer to one of the barred walls in search of a door. When my eyes adjusted to the dimmer light away from the hole, however, I realized that I was not alone. A dozen growls rolled out towards me as I approached the cells; I drew my weapons before I realized that the creatures stood behind bars, having once been prisoners. The imprisoned sand creatures pressed their faces up against the bars, snapping and snarling at me like a pack of rabid hunting dogs long deprived of meat. Their gnarled, emaciated hands groped out towards me, seeking my living flesh, so I stayed carefully out of their way. Had they ever been human? Or had the torments they faced in these dungeons turned them into monsters before the Sands of Time had even been released?

Finally I found a narrow door in the corner, and made for it with all haste, not wanting to stay in this place any longer than necessary. I did not trust the strength of the old, rusted iron penning them in. Before I could even reach the door, something strong knocked it towards me from the other side and it crashed to the floor. Through the doorway stepped two enormous, broad-shouldered prison guards, their eyes glowing golden from the shadows of the doorway. Their faces looked as though they would be cruel even in life, and their living death had brought out all their ferocity. Both sand creatures stepped toward me menacingly, brandishing the cruel, steel-barbed whips they were accustomed to use on their prisoners. I could see swords at their belts as well.

With a sudden roar, they rushed forward, snapping out the whips with sharp cracks. I ducked swiftly, feeling the barbed cords whistling over my head, and rolled out of the way. I attempted to dart forward and stab at the nearest creature's leg, but it brought the whip whirling around before I took a single step, and I barely managed to dodge back again out of its reach. I could see that they were able to attack me from much farther than my sword could reach; these were unlike any creatures I had yet encountered. Backing up warily, I watched their long, dangerous whips carefully for an opening that I could exploit. Yet whenever I began to edge to one side, the whips would crack and I would be forced back again.

One creature seemed to tire of this, and stepped forward suddenly, snapping its whip in my direction. I could see the tips darting towards my face, and leapt backward instinctively. Yet I had run out of room to retreat, and my bare back slammed against cold iron bars. Even colder than the bars, two dessicated arms wrapped around my neck, pressing it with inhuman strength against the unresisting bars of the cell. I felt sharp teeth jab against my shoulder, tearing through blood that had barely congealed. With a desperate cry, I jabbed back over my head with my other arm, and the Dagger sank into the creature, sucking away the pain.

Before I could recover, my pursuers were upon me, and I saw that one had abandoned its whip in favor of its sword. I blocked the creature's blow, but its strength knocked by arm back against the hard bars of the cell, and pain danced up from my elbow. Yet I wasted no time considering the pain. Bracing a foot against a bar, I brought up my sword and propelled myself quickly forward, under the creature's lunging attack, and slammed my sword as hard as I could into its chest. The creature's sword clattered to the floor, and as it staggered backwards and fell to its knees, I wrenched my sword back out, leapt to its shoulders, then flipped backwards to where I could hear the other creature snarling and cracking its whip. Twirling around so I could face it, I brought my sword crashing down upon its head and felt it split in two. The body fell beneath me, the whip falling uselessly to the floor, and I gathered the fallen guards' sands with immense relief.

Yet when I stood up, I saw that I had come close to the next cell, and the creature held within reached out furiously, gnashing its glowing yellow teeth and groping with long-nailed fingers. I hastily backed away, looking around at all the creatures howling and snarling behind their bars, straining as if to snap them in half though they had not the strength. I knew they could not reach me as they were, yet I did not want to linger any longer in this place than I needed. The sand creatures' voices always meant pain and strife, and I had come to dread the sound of their approach. Down in the gloom and stench of the prison, they seemed even more horrific than before. The sand creatures were always vicious and bloodthirsty, yet somehow these creatures seemed even more so than usual. I watched as one used the bars of its cell to break an arm, as if that would help it escape and reach me. A shudder shook me from head to toe, and I recoiled from them to the door. I thought, as I stepped through, that I would leave the creatures to their own misery. Yet as I took in the next room, which looked even more grisly than the last, I felt my dread and horror only rise within me.

Several more guards stood in this room, armed to the teeth, and even as I watched, one of them pulled a lever in the wall. A rusty creak echoed throughout the prison, and all the prison doors behind me swung open. I could hear the eager howls of the creatures rushing towards me even as the guards started forward as well. I was trapped between two vicious mobs.

For a moment, terror froze me to the metal grate that made up the entire floor. Yet as I stood and heard the hungry howls draw ever nearer from before and behind, an idea began to form in my mind. Drawing myself up, I waited until the foremost creature in each group rushed in for the kill, then leapt into the air as they collided, swords slamming into one another's chests rather than mine. I landed feet-first on the next burly guard and toppled its large body to the ground with the Dagger in its skull, slashing viciously at the creature that had been standing behind it. My sword sliced through its soft belly, sending sand pouring in every direction. Its head flew through the air, hitting one of the creatures that had been imprisoned. Swiftly I thrust the Dagger forward to gather up the scattering sand, blocking several blows with my sword.

The creatures pressed in on every side, so after kicking out at one of the thinner creatures, I turned towards the wall, ran up its rough stones a short length, then kicked off to sail over the heads of my enemies. As I descended, I sliced a creature at the fringe of the crowd in half, hastily jabbing the Dagger into it. The remaining creatures roared as they turned to face me once again, and I darted towards the pole standing in the middle of the room, where the guards would chain prisoners to beat them. As the creatures rushed around me, I spun swiftly around the pole with sword outstretched, catching the creatures by surprise and immediately felling several in a circle about the pole. I spun away from the pole, darting around to take the creatures' sands before the few that remained could close the distance and attack. Yet as I plunged the Dagger into the final creature, I felt cold iron clamp around my throat, and realized that one of the imprisoned creatures was using its chain to choke me.

The chain tightened around my neck till I could not draw breath. The last guard came toward me, brandishing its whip to use on me as it had on many other men bound by chains. As my vision began to fade, I threw the Dagger towards the approaching guard with all my might and swung my sword as best as I could around behind me. The pressure around my neck lightened as the creature dropped the chain, and the vicious iron fell from my neck as I coughed and gasped for breath. I saw that the Dagger had fallen to the floor after drawing in the sands of the guard, and I quickly reached for it, but even as my fingers extended it slipped between the metal of the grate floor. Before I could despair or turn around to finish off the last creature, a sudden great force struck my back and sharp nails jabbed into the bare skin of my back. I slammed into the floor, and with the sound of rending metal, the grate gave way beneath me.

Scraping past sharp metal edges as I tumbled head-over-heels into the newly made hole, I fell below the floor with the creature still clinging to me desperately. The descent was not long, but as I landed atop the creature, its grip loosened and I was able to roll away. The ground was uneven and my footing uncertain, but I had neither light nor time enough to inspect my surroundings adequately. I spied the Dagger close by, glowing faintly as usual, and grabbed it even as the creature came howling at my back. Whirling around, I plunged the Dagger straight into its open mouth, past its gnashing teeth and out the back of its throat, and cut off its howls forever.

Sand converged upon me, sliding through the grate above me and wrapping around me till I could no longer see the bloody prison. I collapsed wearily to the ground before the sand overtook me, yet even though my eyes closed in exhaustion, images still burned across them. I saw myself fighting for my life, slowly working my way up a curving flight of stairs. Though the sight of even more pain and fighting should have made my heart sink with dread, I felt instead the refreshing breath of hope, for Farah was at my side, pulling back the bowstring to her ear and aiding me in our common quest. Then the familiar sights of battle faded away, and I saw myself sitting upon the ground with head bowed (whether in remorse, shame, or merely weariness, I could not tell). Farah knelt at my side, and with a gentle look in her fierce dark eyes, took my hand in hers. Even in the grip of the vision, I could feel my heart pound.

As soon as my eyes opened to see the broken grate above me, I spoke aloud, though the only living ears to hear me were my own, "All right. I've decided. I _will_ marry her. I'll tell her the first chance I get." I smiled to myself. "It's time to put an end to all this...fencing about and not saying what one really means. We've made it this far! It's foolish to deny what we both feel..." I fell silent, ruminating over these happy thoughts. We had met but the night before, yet all our time together had been spent aiding one another, and if these hours of strife and peril had drawn me closer to her, was it too much to imagine that her affections would be turned toward me as well? If the vision spoke true – and the visions never lied – then she would only be overjoyed to hear my pronouncement.

Yet gradually another sensation invaded upon these pleasant contemplations. I became aware of a foul stench, and felt many odd shapes pressing against my back as I lay on the uneven ground where I had fallen. I sat up, and heard a clattering sound as the ground shifted with my movements. The light was dim, but I bent down over the pile of stone and earth upon which I lay. I picked up one of the large stones and held it to the light to examine it – then dropped it immediately and recoiled with a cry. It was a human skull. Looking around myself now, I saw piles of skeletons and half-rotted corpses, all jumbled together in a confusion of tangled bodies, where the guards had thrown dead prisoners. They were all about me, empty eye sockets staring at me, broken teeth leering, rotting hands groping towards me. The stench was overpowering, and even as I struggled to stand, I lost my footing and the dead bodies nearly seemed to grasp at me and throw themselves upon me, hoping to drown me in their cold, eternal embrace.

Finally I managed to grasp onto the edge of the hole over my head, and quickly scrambled up it till I was out of the pit of death. I was covered with grime and blood both old and new, but I cared nothing for that. After the dark and terror of the pit, the upper level of the prison, with its merciless cells and bloodstains on the walls, seemed to me a place of light and warmth. Breathing a sigh of relief, I grasped the bars of the nearest cell lest I break through the floor again.

Hoping to still my racing heart, I slid to the floor and leaned against the wall. I dared not look down through the holes in the floor, fearing to see the corpses leering up at me, perhaps moving in some mockery of life that the Sands had wrought. Instead I turned my gaze to a crate at my side, a small metal box with metal bars that allowed one a view of its contents. Peering inside, I saw the white glimmer of bones, and chuckled weakly to myself, desperately needing something to laugh at. Why on earth would anyone go to the trouble of locking a bundle of bones in a cage? "Look, there's bones in a box!" I said lightly to myself, hoping to lift my spirits even a little. Yet as I continued to gaze through the metal bars, I realized they made a human skeleton, bent and deformed, as though there had once been a person confined in that tiny space, forced to bend nearly double, unable to move at all. I stared, stricken, at the bones of a hand clutched desperately, futilely, around one of the bars.

Scrambling back onto my feet, I looked around desperately for an escape from this dreadful place. All that met my eyes spoke of pain and gruesome, prolonged death. I could see many assorted torture devices set up around the walls of the room – thumbscrews and whips hanging on the walls, stone pots where hot coals would smolder, waiting for one of the many metal implements hanging on the walls to be inserted, then held against the most sensitive flesh of a prisoner. It was the first time I had seen such devices at close range. Close enough to touch. The men whose trade it had been to apply the question, to extract the answer their king sought, now resided within the Dagger as nothing but sand. In the end, they had met the same fate as their victims. Guards and prisoners were made equal by the Sands of Time. Their only legacy now lay in the cruel devices laid about the room, and the bones beneath my feet.

The dark silence was oppressive in this place of death, and I searched for a way out ever more earnestly. Looking up, I saw far above me a hole in the ceiling that let a dim light fall down into the room. The walls drew closer to each other as they neared this hole, and many metal beams criss-crossed the empty space to support the ceiling. Finally I thought I could see a way to escape this prison. Grasping one of the chains hanging from the whipping-post in the center of the room, I climbed up and precariously balanced myself on the top. Before I could lose my balance, I leapt towards the nearest support beam and managed to grasp it with my fingertips. As I hung there for a moment, I looked up at the beams stretching up to the top. I knew this was my only hope, but it would require much strength.

Swinging myself towards the wall, I kicked off it and leapt towards the next pole behind me, then kicked off the opposite wall to another pole above that one. In this way I climbed ever upward, drawing closer and closer to the hole. My shoulders ached as all my weight hung from them, and a few times I heard a clatter as the pole I had just let go of fell to the floor far below. I could not spare a single moment to rest, not with such a distance to fall, so I pressed onwards till I could grasp the lip of the round hole with my fingers and heave myself through it.

Yet even then, I was allowed no respite. For as soon as I emerged from the opening into the dazzling sunlight, I became aware of the sounds of sand creatures making battle. Leaping away from the hole, I immediately drew forth my weapons and faced off against my enemies. Many of the creatures already lay upon the ground, but I had no time to wonder at this, using every mental faculty and every ounce of strength left in my body to fight off the few who remained standing. Sunlight bounced off the white stones of the courtyard where I stood, nearly blinding me, yet I managed to dance around the blows of the large creatures who assailed me and collect the sand from their fallen comrades. Yet weariness made me stumble, and several times I barely dodged a creature's attack.

At last, I leapt upon one of the final creatures, who wielded a bow, and twisted its own bow around its neck until it fell at my feet, then stabbed it with the Dagger. As I rose from the ground, my knees gave out under me and I stumbled back to the ground, just as the last creature ran howling towards me. I attempted to raise my weapons to defend myself, but my arms were leaden and dropped back to my sides as darkness closed in on me. The creature raised its sword for one final stroke, but I saw a flash of red and heard a distant _twang_ of a released bowstring. The creature fell on the Dagger I still clutched in my hand, and I collapsed wearily onto the stones. I longed for a deep, dreamless sleep, but the sands soared towards me, whirling past my eyelids even as they closed in sleep.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

My vision streamed past my eyes like a thousand fleeting dreams. It seemed the sands were determined to drive me to despair, for no sooner had the shimmering image of the Hourglass appeared before my eyes than one much more disturbing clouded my sight. I saw Farah looking furtively around, then reaching down and picking a small object from the ground. She raised it in her hands and gazed at it with her jaw set firmly. She held the Dagger.

My eyes flew open, yet I still saw her face, and immediately I jerked away from her, clutching the Dagger protectively against my chest from where it had fallen to the ground. I rolled away and leapt to my feet, even as I realized that the vision had receded. I felt disoriented, as though I had been asleep for a considerable amount of time. Farah rose to her feet from where she had been bending over my prostrate form. Was it only to prise the Dagger from my grasp? But no...if I had been lying there for more than a few moments, she could have taken the Dagger and left me to the ravaging sands long ago.

"It's all right," Farah said in a soft voice, stepping closer. "It's only me."

I gazed suspiciously at her, the vision so fresh in my mind that I was sure she would snatch the Dagger at the nearest opportunity. I clutched it tightly, remembering how she had attempted to steal it the first time she had found me helpless and vulnerable. Yet...I had become convinced over the long hours of our acquaintance that she cared more for me than my Dagger alone. I wanted to believe that. I stood irresolute, trapped between all that had happened before and what I had seen of the future.

Farah came closer and touched my cheek with one of her soft, warm hands. "It's me," she murmured, gazing at me imploringly.

I looked into her eyes, and all my doubts fled. This was Farah, my trusted companion, who had saved my life and I hers more times than I could count. She would not now abandon me to the sands, nor betray me by stealing the Dagger and leaving me defenseless. I had found time and time again that the future could be shaped and changed, and often what the sands seemed to reveal was not quite what happened in the end. My tense muscles relaxed, and I put the Dagger away, still gazing upon her face. The sun was low in the sky, sending long shadows before it, but I knew we could not have been separated for more than a few hours. Yet the horror of the prison had been such that it felt an age since I had looked upon her face, and I was glad to do so again.

"Your eyes..." she murmured, her fingers still lingering on my cheek. "They're green."

"Are they?" I drank in her features, the smooth curves of her bronzed skin, the black eyes that so often were sharp and fierce, yet now seemed soft and warm. Standing closer to her than I was accustomed to, I noticed the ends of her dark hair brushing against the fading marks of henna on the side of her neck. They seemed to be shaped in a design of flower petals. Then I realized we had been standing in this manner for a full minute, and quickly drew back, blinking to break the spell that had seemed to fall over me. "I'm sorry, was I staring?"

But Farah only smiled and said, "It's all right." Then she turned and pointed towards the other end of the courtyard. "Look. At last we've reached the Tower of Dawn!"

We had indeed. Directly above us, the tall tower reached to the heavens. My eyes followed the curving walls of the Tower down to its base, where a set of shallow marble steps led up to an archway carved grandly with fruits and birds of all kinds. As Farah and I began to cross the courtyard, I wondered what would happen once I had returned the Sands of Time to their proper place. What would we do in the ruins of an empty palace, alone with not even a horse intact to bear us away? Our first concern had always been simply to survive long enough to reach the top of the Tower of Dawn, yet now that our goal was near at hand I felt at a loss. My father and his entire army was dead. Would I even be able to return to the safety of my home? Or would Farah and I live alone in this palace that I had single-handedly thrown into ruin? As I gazed up at the Tower of Dawn, I knew that I could not bear to remain in this place any longer than necessary. There was too much grief and pain carved into every stone of its walls.

"When you fell," Farah spoke up softly, breaking me from my reverie, "I was so worried. I didn't know what I should do. I thought you..." Yet she fell silent, for she did not need to finish her words.

"I'm sorry for worrying you," I said sincerely, thinking as I spoke how my words applied not only to this last separation, but all the times before when we had been forced apart, or the times when Farah had to wait for me to wake from my vision in the empty, quiet palace.

By this time we had reached the archway, and stepped through to the foot of a seemingly endless staircase that spiraled up to the very pinnacle of the tower. A balustrade made of delicate black metal ran along the side of the steps to protect those who would climb to the top from falling over the side and plummeting down to the hard stones far below. At regular intervals, large windows looked out in all directions so that one could see every part of the great palace as they ascended. Green vines spilled over the windowsills, letting down delicate leaves to soften the harsh stone of the walls and steps.

Her face alight with triumph at finally realizing our goal, Farah began to rush up the stairs. "Be careful!" I called, hurrying after her.

"Of what?" She turned around a few stairs above me, laughter in her eyes. "Not everything is a trap, you know."

My heart thudded in my chest, for I saw what she could not: A sand creature wearing a lopsided turban hurried down the stairs towards her unsuspecting back, moving too swiftly for her to turn, nock an arrow to the string, and defend herself. I cried a warning, but knowing this was futile, I pulled out the Dagger and threw it over Farah's shoulder in one smooth motion. The Dagger hit the creature squarely in the face, and it fell with a sickening crunch onto the stairs underfoot. Even as Farah gasped and spun around, I bounded past her to the stair where the creature had fallen, unsheathing my sword and looking up at the growing number of creatures swarming down the stairs toward us. Snatching up the Dagger, I prepared to face them.

Farah had recovered her composure before the next creature came close; I heard the whizz of her arrow as it sped past me and plunged into one creature's glowing chest. I moved forward even as it stumbled and fell to the ground, crossing my arms over my chest and slashing out at the next creature in both directions with sword and Dagger, simultaneously killing it and drawing out its sands. In the same smooth motion, I reached behind me with the Dagger and stabbed the body at my back. At the same time, I raised my sword to block the attack of the swarthy creature who came at me next, bellowing and brandishing its scimitar.

I noted as I parried my foes' attacks that the stairs were so narrow that two men could not walk abreast. This would prevent the creatures from surrounding me on all sides, yet I worried as I slew one creature and the next leapt to take its place, that I would soon tire from this relentless battering. As soon as one creature fell, the one behind it rushed forward, and I gained little ground. Farah caused no small confusion farther up the staircase, as she shot across the gap to the other side of the tower. The creatures fell and stumbled together, creating a gap in the tight line of creatures. I fought more desperately than ever, and raced to close the distance as soon as no enemies stood in my way, calling to Farah to remain where she was. At least I could give her a small chance of escape should I fall in battle.

As I neared a spindly-limbed creature wielding a large axe, I leapt from the lower stair and kicked the creature as hard as I could in the stomach. It fell backwards into the creature behind it, toppling several to the ground. Jabbing the Dagger into the fallen creature, I used it for leverage and swung my body about, tripping a creature that had begun to clamber upright. Before it could attempt to rise again, I swung back around and stabbed the Dagger into its chest. As the next creature closed in, it leapt off a higher stair, intending to crush me from a greater height. I swung viciously at its legs, thrusting it to the side so it fell against the railing, toppling over and falling with an echoing cry to be dashed against the unforgiving stones far below.

As it fell, an idea presented itself to my mind, and I pursued it without hesitation. Hastily sheathing my blades, I swung my leg to catch the next creature's neck and hook it with my foot. My momentum carried us both to the side, and I grasped the balustrade with both hands, swinging over it and sending the creature hurtling into empty space. Quickly I swung back over onto the stairs, yet I was not swift enough. A creature three heads taller than I threw its considerable weight at me, and since my weapons were stowed I could not defend myself. I could hear the sound of rending metal, and a large portion of the balustrade broke away from the stone, even as I clung to it with all my strength. The metal swung out over the gap, sagging dangerously with my weight. The creature that had run into me lost its balance and fell with a cry to join its lifeless comrades far below.

The creatures swarmed gleefully down towards Farah, and I knew that it was only a matter of time before her remaining arrows would be spent and the tide would wash over her. I swung back and forth on the dangling balustrade until I gained enough momentum to reach the stairs again. I slid under the legs of a creature on the stairs and the sharp metal of the balustrade gored it like a handful of knives. Leaping to my feet behind it, I drew the creature's sands and let the metal break away altogether and fall clattering over the edge.

Sand creatures now rushed towards me from both sides, the ones who had run lower down the stairs now turning back to me from their pursuit of Farah, singling me out as the greater threat. As two creatures came within range on either side, I leapt into the air, kicking out at them so they fell to the ground and were trampled by their brethren. For several minutes, I was forced to fend off attackers from both directions, using every ounce of skill I possessed to keep myself from harm, constantly spinning around to deflect blows on all sides. I knew that my strength was failing, that I could not hold up against so many enemies. My arms ached, and a few blades broke past my defenses, drawing blood in shallow gashes that no amount of skill could completely avoid. Yet I knew that soon my defenses would give way completely, and I would suffer much worse than a few scratches.

When at last Farah and I had defeated all the creatures between us, I realized only dire measures would stop this never-ending tide. What I was about to do would most likely draw the vizier's attention, which would put us in great danger since he was bound to be close by, but I could see no other course than to take the risk. Sinking my sword into a sand creature and letting go momentarily of the hilt, I flipped the Dagger from one hand to the other, so that it landed in my left hand. Once again I felt the exhilarating rush as the power of Time itself roared through my veins. Grasping my sword again and holding out the Dagger, I ran swiftly along the curving wall, running ever upwards while running through the long line of creatures that stood in our way. I moved so fast that I nearly seemed to fly up the tower, my feet skimming across the stones of the wall a few feet above the stairs. The creatures rushed by me in a golden blur as they disintegrated under the Dagger's touch, until at last the power of the sand ebbed away and I came to a stop at the very top of the tower. Still giddy from the speed at which I had ascended, I looked over the side of the balustrade to see where Farah was. I could see her, far below me, hurrying as fast as she could in my wake. As I heard the sand rushing up the stairs towards me, I hastily moved away from the edge, lest I fall over. Excitement filled me as sand closed over my eyes. We had nearly reached our goal.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

Once more, the graceful curving outline of the Hourglass assailed me the moment my eyes closed. I could see myself leaping onto the very top of it and crouching down over something outside my vision, holding the Dagger in my hand. Silhouetted against the glow of the Hourglass, I saw an indistinct, menacing figure standing and watching me. Yet before I could determine who that figure was, my vision shifted and once again I saw Farah straightening up from the ground, with the Dagger held in both hands, its soft glow illuminating her face. What was that shining in her beautiful eyes? Fear? Determination? Or...triumph? This marked the second time I had seen this vision; never before had the sands revealed the future with such certainty. What ought I to do? I returned to consciousness, worry coiling in my stomach as I sat up and felt Farah's hands on my shoulders. She helped me sit up, while carefully keeping clear of my wounds. I could only gaze at her for a moment, confused and uncertain of what I should do.

For the time being, I decided to do nothing, rising to my feet and doing my utmost to act normally. "The Hourglass is nearby," I told her.

"Your vision?" she asked, her voice free of the mockery I had grown accustomed to hearing.

I nodded, and gradually I noticed a nagging sensation impressing itself upon the back of my mind. "And...I can feel it."

At this, her eyebrows rose. "Feel it? How?"

Rubbing the back of my head as if that would get rid of the ominous presence, I searched for some way to describe it. "It's...as if I'm searching for the right word to say, but can't quite recall it." Finally I shook my head, unable to puzzle it out. "But come. We should continue before the vizier sends more creatures after us."

At the top of the stairs, a great arched door led into the vast chamber that comprised the very pinnacle of the Tower of Dawn. Together Farah and I stepped through into the very place we had been striving towards from the beginning, and gazed about in wonder. I had heard tales of the sultan's immense wealth, but nothing could have prepared me for the innumerable treasures held in this single chamber. Mountains of gold rose on all sides, precious gems and valuable artifacts carelessly strewn about as though they were pebbles. The finest, softest carpets man could craft littered the floor, some laid out beneath our feet, others rolled up and leaning against immense piles of gold coins. Treasures, the plunder of countless conquests, were collected in this room, gathered together from the four corners of the world. I had seen the riches of my father, and the Maharajah's treasure vault, yet neither could compare to the immense beauty of these riches. Gold and silver rose in piles almost reaching the high windows letting light into this room.

Yet our eyes did not linger on these luxuries for long; our attention was immediately drawn to the most valuable treasure of them all. The Hourglass sat in the place of honor in the midst of the treasures, resting upon a dais surrounded by marble pillars. The golden base swept around the thick glass, mimicking the whirlwind that had burst forth when I had inserted the Dagger. The Sands of Time glowed steadily, as though unperturbed by all the destruction and grief they had wrought.

As one, Farah and I wove our way through the piles of the wealth to the Hourglass in the center. I became aware of the oppressive silence in this tower room, and looked around uneasily. "There's no one here," I murmured. Somehow, the vizier's absence felt more worrisome than his presence would have. Whenever he had appeared in my visions, he had always stood in this room, guarding the Hourglass whence his terrible power had come. Where could he be, now that his two remaining enemies had infiltrated his keep this far?

At last we stood looking up at the Hourglass, and I felt as though the Sands of Time had taken me back to the moment when I made my fatal mistake. Now, at last, I could put things right again. I looked for the notch where I had inserted the Dagger before, but Farah pointed to the top of the Hourglass. "You'll need to insert it from there."

I nodded unquestioningly, for she had grown up in the palace where the Hourglass had been kept, then looked up at the pillars encircling the dais. They had been placed close together, almost forming a cage about the Hourglass, and the gaps were just narrow enough that I could wedge myself between them with my back against one pillar and my feet against the next. In this manner, I slowly worked my way up between two pillars to where they met the ceiling in ornate capitals. By grasping this stonework in my hands, I swung out over the Hourglass and landed lightly on the very top.

"You did it!" Farah cried from below me. "Take the Dagger. Strike it into the center of the dome."

Kneeling where I had landed, I looked down and saw a small glowing dome about a span across rising from the top, through which I could see the odd, shimmering light emanating from the Sands of Time. I pulled forth the Dagger and began to lower its point towards the dome. Yet as I did so, I glanced to the side and saw Farah below me, gazing upward with a rapt expression of tense excitement. And I hesitated.

The vision the sands had shown me seemed to shimmer before my eyes again, as though the sands glittering beneath me sent forth their power. I remembered the look I had seen in her face as she held the Dagger in her own hands, wrested from my grasp after all this time. I remembered how, the first time she had seen me helpless in the grasp of the Sands of Time, she sought to take the Dagger and leave me helpless. Was this not still her desire? How could I be sure she was not leading me astray in an attempt to seize the Dagger for her own?

Still holding the Dagger high above the dome, I frowned down at Farah. "My father's army sacked your palace and captured you as a slave," I said in the hardest tone I could manage.

"What?" Farah's eyes widened and filled with shock, confusion, even fear. So many hours had elapsed since either of us mentioned the events that had brought us together, yet now the wounds that had hardly begun to close tore open again at my words.

I hardened my heart against the look of disbelief and hurt in Farah's face, for I knew what I had seen. Remembering the scathing words we had thrown at each other, I reminded myself of the pain I felt as my own hands slew my father. The same man who had torn this princess away from her homeland and taken her to a strange country where she was beset on all sides by danger. "You have every reason to hate me," I said, narrowing my eyes down at her. The shared danger we had gone through to reach this place had engendered fondness for her in my heart, and I still had no desire to see any harm come to her. Yet I could no longer blindly follow her directions, not when it might lead to my own demise. "Now you want me to trust you?"

"What are you talking about?" Farah demanded in desperation. "Go on! There's no time!"

As soon as these words escaped her lips, the sound of approaching footsteps put all thought of betrayal from our minds. The vizier strode towards us from behind a particularly enormous pile of treasure, looking every bit as calm and sinister as he had appeared when he convinced me to unlock the Sands of Time. Before either of us could move, the vizier chanted a baleful incantation, brandishing his snake-shaped staff. Immediately an enormous gale rose up, blowing dust, sand, and debris towards Farah and me and knocking us completely off our feet. I managed to grasp onto one of the pillars surrounding the Hourglass with one hand, and saw that Farah held onto the one next to me.

Narrowing my eyes against the howling wind, I saw the vizier advancing towards us, the ferocious gale not seeming to touch him. "Give me the Dagger," he calmly demanded, just as he had done before.

Before I could reply, Farah's hands slipped from the pillar she clung to. As her fingers slipped from the smooth stone, the pillar broke from the pressure of the wind and crashed through a window. Farah let out a cry as the wind swept her towards the window and the drop to the stones miles below, but quicker than thought I threw the Dagger to the ground and caught her hand instead. Even as she clung to me with all her strength, her eyes widened in fear and she cried wildly, "The Dagger! He must not get the Dagger!"

The vizier advanced with one yellow-nailed hand greedily outstretched towards the Dagger, and I did the only thing I could have done. Letting go of the pillar, I let myself fall, snatched up the Dagger an instant before the vizier could grab hold of it, and let the wild wind blow us out the window and away from the vizier. I had faced my enemy. I had looked into his eyes, and I had lost...everything.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

I held Farah close to me as the vizier's roaring wind thrust us past the broken shards of glass in the window, and we crashed through the roof of some tower not far below the Tower of Dawn. The darkening blue of the sky reeled below my feet as the grey shadows of towers and walls whirled above my head, then I closed my eyes to shut out the sickening rush of colors and the gritty clouds of sand kicked up in the vizier's whirlwind. My bare back felt the full impact of our fall, which slowed as we broke through several wooden floors, tumbled down a staircase, then fell onto a bare stone floor.

The force of the fall and Farah's weight knocked the breath out of me, but Farah untangled herself from me as hastily as she could. A mass of rubble had followed our descent and settled around us into a massive heap, and the Tower of Dawn still loomed far above us through distant, jagged holes. As I struggled to rise to my feet and catch my breath, I tucked the Dagger safely away again and looked about to see where we had fallen. The stone was old and much dust had been disturbed by our fall, yet I could easily recognize the richly adorned coffins of ancient sultans. We had fallen into a tomb, and I could not see a way out amongst all the rubble. I marveled at how the sands had weakened the great structures of Azad, to let us fall such a great distance.

Yet there was more to concern me than the blocked exit. "You were right there," Farah snapped, glaring at me with the old fire once more lit behind her eyes. "The Dagger was in your hand. Why did you hesitate?"

The full weight of my latest mistake fell upon my shoulders, knocking my breath away as powerfully as the fall had. I had unleashed the Sands of Time, and even when the path had opened clearly before me to set everything right once more, I had still failed. Defeated, I slumped to the floor again with my back against the nearest coffin, and dropped my head into my hands.

"You think you're more clever than everybody else," Farah continued angrily, pacing about before me. "But you're no different from the rest of them. Those soldiers...all they could do is fight. Destroy. Why did I ever trust you?" Then she knelt before me, pulling my hands away from my face and clasping them in hers. I looked into her eyes, and saw that the anger was gone. Yet in its place resided a deep disappointment and sorrow that made me long for her harsh accusations once more. "And why didn't you trust me?"

Stricken, I opened my mouth to reply, though I knew not what feeble words could explain my actions away. Yet before a single sound could escape my lips, a sudden dark shape crashed with a crunch of stone on stone over the hole we had fallen through, cutting off the dim light that had filtered down to us. We both started to our feet again, scrambling blindly away from the shower of pebbles that fell on us. At last the falling stones settled and all was still again. I thought of Byzun, imprisoned in a hole in the desert, kept alive only by the princess Manijeh's ministrations. But my fair princess had been trapped in this chasm with me, and I doubted the vizier would pass food down to us to keep us alive.

Somewhere in the complete darkness that pressed against me on all sides, I heard Farah's frightened voice. "Where are you?"

"I'm right here," I said into the impenetrable gloom, looking vainly in all directions for the slightest glint of light. But the tomb had been sealed completely, and the pitch blackness seemed to press against my eyes.

I heard Farah stumbling to my side, then felt her hand grope for my own. "Hold my hand," she said in a small voice. "Don't let go."

Surprised that she still sought my presence, I grasped her hand tightly, then felt for the coffin once more, and together we sat with our backs to its cold, hard surface, the only solid point we had in the disorienting darkness. In the next few moments of silence, in which the only sound to reach my ears was that of our quiet breathing, I knew a fear and despair unrelated to anything I had yet encountered in all our time together. All hope seemed to have been sucked out of me. Though the Dagger was safely sheathed at my side, and we had reached the Hourglass, all had been to no avail...because of me.

"I didn't mean what I said," Farah finally murmured, her voice drawing me from the darkness of my thoughts to the darkness of my surroundings.

"No," I replied heavily. "You're right. All that's happened is my doing. I wanted honor and glory. I brought this on us." For a moment, loathing of my own self threatened to overwhelm me. I now felt ashamed for all the thoughts that had occupied my mind, for my selfish preoccupations and the betrayal of trust that now hung between me and the woman who had proved a loyal ally time and time again. With difficulty, I spoke again, forming words that seemed to tear open the wounds that littered my body. "I never apologized...for the way I've acted. For the things I've said. For who I am..." _A scoundrel,_ I thought to myself, my voice dying in my throat. _A selfish, distrustful scoundrel who values his own thoughts and desires over everyone else's._

After a moment, Farah said gently, "I owe you an apology as well. It was unfair of me to accuse you of such terrible things."

"But I have _done_ terrible things."

Farah gently pressed my hand between hers. "We all make mistakes. Even your great Persian heroes chose the wrong path from time to time. The difference is that you have accepted yours. You are brave and good. If this tomb is to be ours, at least the Dagger will be buried with us. And..." Her hand slid up to my cheek. "We are together."

Her words were as a salve to soothe my wounds, and I found myself trembling as relief loosened the muscles that had grown tight without my knowledge. I had disregarded everything she did or said, acted most disagreeably towards her the entire time I had known her, and ventured so far as to distrust her when she had been honest with me from the beginning. I had even trusted the ambiguous, misleading visions induced by dangerous magic before the words of the one I should have trusted before all others. And yet, after all I had done, still she consented to take me back into her heart. My breath grew short, and regret and relief pushed me to the verge of exhausted tears.

"What is it?" Farah asked with concern.

"Nothing," I said hastily, striving to master myself, but my voice shook with repressed emotion.

"You're trembling."

Quickly, I brushed away the moisture on my cheeks and cast about for an excuse. "I just don't like close spaces." In an attempt to change the subject, I said, "There must be some way out of here! Perhaps we can dig our way out."

"When I was small..." Farah began quietly, and I looked towards her even though I could not see her. "My mother taught me a secret word. She said that when I was afraid, all I had to do was speak that word, and a magic door would open." She paused. "I've never told that to anybody."

"I can see why," I replied briskly, attempting to assume my old tone of dismissal and lighten the dismal air. "It's the most childish thing I've ever heard." I paused, then added curiously, "What was the word?"

"Kakolukiyah."

I murmured the strange word myself, but of course no magic door appeared with the blazing light of freedom. And yet...I know not if it was this word that prompted me, but I suddenly felt the need to be honest with Farah. Excepting a pure miracle, we would be trapped in this tomb forever, doomed to death with the long-since perished sultans. There was no reason to hide anything from her anymore. "Farah," I said softly into the long silence. "Before we came to the Tower of Dawn, I had intended to tell you that, should we both survive...I intended to take you back to Saraf...as my bride. But I suppose that doesn't matter anymore."

For a long time, Farah said nothing, and I feared that I had offended her. Finally, she spoke in a whisper perfectly audible in the dead silence of the tomb. "I would have accepted...had you asked."

I pulled her closer to me, drawing comfort from her presence. My hand brushed the side of her face, tracing the invisible contours of her face that I knew so well. Our lips met in the darkness, and hers were as soft as fine silk, as sweet as pomegranate.

Yet even as love for her seemed to pulse through every vein in my body, my heart was wrung with anguish. For what did this confession avail us? We cared for each other, yes, and we had at last set aside the enmity between us. Yet love could not rescue us from this prison. So at last we lay down upon the hard stone floor, and the exhaustion from all our toils carried us off to sleep. And all those toils seemed to have been for naught, in the end.

**Note: The reference to Byzun and Manijeh is from one of the legends told in the _Shahname._ Byzun, a Persian warrior, is tricked into going to Turan and falls in love with Manijeh, the daughter of Afrasiyab. When Afrasiyab finds out, he throws Byzun into a deep pit in the desert where he is to die a slow death. Manijeh, however, feeds him through a small hole and keeps him alive until he can escape.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen**

I hurried down a winding stone staircase, knowing in my heart that I had little time. The light from flickering torches glinted off ancient golden symbols worked into the stone of the walls, flashing with every step I took. I ran and ran, yet I seemed to glide smoothly down the steps as though propelled by a breeze I could not feel.

The staircase finally came to an end at a doorway where hung a sheer, thin curtain. Pushing this aside, I came into a room in the center of which stood a beautiful marble statue amidst a soft fountain of water. Doors lined the walls, all hung with the same gauzy curtains that seemed to flutter with the faintest breeze, though I could not feel the faintest breath of wind. "Where are you?" I called.

"Here I am!" An answering voice floated towards me from somewhere beyond the curtains, and I immediately recognized it as Farah's.

I started in the direction I thought her voice had come from, yet when I pushed aside the curtain and rushed in, I found myself in the same room, or one much like it. "Farah, where are you?" I called again.

"I'm right here!" her voice called back.

Once more I plunged through a curtain, and once more I emerged into the same room. Fear stole upon me, even in the dream, as I began to wonder if no way out even existed. I could not even tell which door I had come through. Again I called Farah's name, and again I followed her reply through a doorway only to find myself where I had begun.

"What are you doing?" Farah's voice sounded confused, almost amused.

"I'm looking for you!" I cried, growing ever more afraid and frustrated.

"But I'm right here!"

"Where?" I demanded, thrusting aside yet another curtain and finding only the very same statue, fountain, and doors behind it.

"Can't you see me?" Farah asked, and now her voice sounded sad. "Why do you act so distant?" And even as she spoke, her voice grew softer and softer, as though she drew farther and farther away from me, though I struggled ever more desperately to find her. "I'm right here... Why do you hesitate? Why...?"

Then her voice faded away completely into silence, and though I screamed her name, she did not speak again. I cried to her, begged her not to leave, ran as swiftly as I had ever done in my life...but it was all for naught. I was alone, trapped in that labyrinthine palace, with the beautiful statue and the softly falling water my cold, constant companions.

I woke slowly with a heaviness in my heart. Was it real, that magical cavern? It had been a dream, it could only be a dream, but it was a dream rooted in reality. I am convinced of that. For the first time the images before my eyes had not been induced by sand. Yet the dream was as clear as the visions had always been.

As soon as my eyes opened, I realized that I could see the tomb around me. The rubble seemed to have shifted, or else the weakened palace walls had crumbled away further. Behind the enormous pile of rubble that we had brought in our wake, I could see the light of a new morning shining through a narrow opening in the wall of the tomb. I saw immediately that Farah was no longer at my side, and as I rose swiftly to my feet I realized that my sheaths slapped emptily against me. My sword was gone...as was the Dagger.

For several long moments, I could only stare, aghast, at the place where the Dagger of Time had hung at my belt for what felt like an eternity. What I had foreseen in the sand vision had indeed come to pass. Farah had taken the Dagger from me. Anger, fear, and confusion threatened to overwhelm me. How could she have done this to me? Did she not trust me, after everything we had been through?

And even as those words echoed in my mind, I realized that I had done the same to her. Had she felt this same hollow feeling of betrayal, as though the very earth had crumbled beneath her feet? I shook my head; it was to be expected that she would abandon me after I had utterly failed her. Yet as I did so, I looked down and saw something resting on my chest. A golden chain hung around my neck, and as I lifted the pendant up to my eyes, I recognized it as the one that had always hung about Farah's neck.

"Farah?" I whispered, as though I could speak to her through the golden ornament. The medallion was all that had protected her from the curse of the Sands of Time, just as the Dagger had protected me. Though she had taken the Dagger from me, she had nevertheless left her protection with me, to ensure my safety. Then, she still cared for me, but it seemed that she had decided she could not trust me to return the Dagger any longer, and had set out to make things right herself. "Oh no," I murmured as I clasped the medallion in my hands. She might have my sword and the Dagger, but Farah was no warrior. She would surely perish before she could find her way back to the Hourglass.

I hurried towards the opening in the wall and managed to squeeze through, yet I soon found that I was in as much peril as Farah. Hearing the tell-tale growl of several sand creatures, I whirled around as soon as I set foot on the terrace outside, and found that I was nearly surrounded by creatures – all wielding deadly weapons, while my hands clutched nothing but empty air. How could I have been so careless?

I could only stand with my feet frozen to the stones as the creatures swarmed towards me with their throaty yells. Utterly defenseless, I waited for their approach. Yet as I watched my death grow ever closer, something stirred within me – a deep, unquenchable desire to continue living. For I knew what Farah was attempting, and I knew that I had to reach her before it was too late. No amount of treachery, no number of mistakes, mattered now. And so I pushed aside all thoughts of merely giving up, though there seemed no way I could survive without the Dagger or even a single weapon.

At first I only dodged the creatures' attacks and danced about them, but I knew I could not protect myself for long in this manner. Finally I saw an opening and leapt towards a creature, flipping myself over its shoulders and kicking it in the back of the head, seizing the sword that dropped from its fingers as it fell to the ground. The sword was too long for my taste, but it served well enough to stab the fallen creature in the back, then whirl around and knock aside several blows. The creatures were slow in recovering from their surprise at my sudden acquisition of a weapon, and I swiftly dispatched several. Yet as the creatures fell to the ground, I saw the glow around their bodies and knew that in mere moments, they would rise again, and I had no way to keep them from regenerating every time they died. The others I had not managed to fell pressed towards me eagerly.

I left that place as swiftly as I could, finding a staircase on one side of the terrace that wound up the side of the tower and racing up it as the creatures trailed behind me. I could see the Tower of Dawn looming above me, as menacing as it had ever been. Perhaps I had only forgotten the state of disrepair the sands had left the palace in, but I thought the towers looked even more fragile than before. The Sands of Time fed on the life of the palace as well as its inhabitants, leeching away all strength and beauty.

As I ran across a narrow bridge connecting one spire to another, the stones fell away behind me and I was barely able to clutch the edge and pull myself up to safety. Breathing heavily, I turned and watched the stones, and several of my swifter pursuers, fall the immeasurable distance to the ground. The rest of their fellows screamed and brandished their weapons, enraged that I had managed to escape. I realized that without the power to turn back time, a single misstep would mean death for me.

Once I was sure the creatures could not follow me, I turned to continue my climb to the Tower. A vertical swathe had been cut through the building before me, as though a giant had gouged out a trench on the wall. The stone was rough, and I was able to climb up to the top by bracing my back against one side and reaching for footholds on the other. When I finally heaved myself over the top, I found I had come to a wide balcony on the Tower of Dawn itself. My heart stopped as I saw the sand creatures rushing towards the far side of the balcony, where a single figure in red scrambled over the pile of debris and disappeared from sight around the side of the tower. Screaming Farah's name, I rushed after them and hewed the creatures apart with desperate speed. One creature swung a sword as broad as mine towards me with a roar, and though I caught it on my own newly-found sword, my blade shattered from the force of the creature's attack.

Taking advantage of the creature's momentum, I grasped its arm and pulled it forward with such strength that it toppled to the ground. Springing through this gap in between my foes, I scrambled after Farah as best I could. "Come back!" I cried as she ran away with all speed. The creatures' labored breathing followed close behind me, but I was once more without a weapon and could not stop to defend myself. Farah led me, from a greater distance than I liked, around the tower and ever upwards, occasionally springing up an intact staircase, but most often climbing as fast as we could over piles of rubble or up the very face of the tower itself. The creatures were ever close behind me, and Farah seemed to draw further and further away with every minute. At times I would lose sight of her completely as she hurried around the curve of the tower, yet with a burst of speed I found her distant red speck once more.

Then I came to a ladder leading directly to the domed roof of the Tower of Dawn, and knew that Farah must have gone there in the hopes of finding some way down to the treasure hold. Heart pounding, I clambered up the ladder with all speed, emerging into a small, round room. The wooden floor of the room had been broken through in several places, letting the golden glitter from the chamber below flicker up onto the domed ceiling. Farah stood near one of the gaping holes, the light shimmering on my sword as she used it to fight three enormous sand creatures as best she could. Yet I could see that in truth, she knew nothing of how to wield a sword, and it had been forged for someone of my stature besides. She could not hold out for long against these enemies.

I sprang forward, grabbing up a sword from one of the glowing bodies that littered the floor. The creatures could not lumber around fast enough to meet this new threat, and I impaled two of them in a heartbeat. Yet even as I beheaded the third creature, it swiped wildly at Farah, and she lost her footing. My sword slipped from her hand, and she fell through one of the holes in the floor, barely grasping the edge of the hole as she hung over the treasure hold far below. "Farah!" I cried, dropping my weapon and lunging to her side.

Her tenuous grip on the rotting wood slipped, but I thrust out my hand and my fingers brushed against her wrist before they closed around the Dagger, which she still held tightly in her hand. She began to slip further, and I held onto the blade of the Dagger with all my might, though it dug mercilessly into the flesh of my palm. My blood ran down the blade and touched her fingers on the hilt. Farah saw this, then lifted her eyes to my face. A thousand emotions swirled in those dark depths, and I saw that now she was sorry she had not trusted me, that we had not been together for this last leg of the journey. I gazed back into those eyes with anxiety, fearing that her grip was not strong enough and that I could not pull her back up through the hole. Yet at the same time I knew I could not blame her for leaving me and trying to reach the Hourglass on her own. I would have done the same.

Then, inexplicably, Farah smiled – a soft, gentle smile – and murmured a single word: "Kakolukiyah."

In an instant, I understood what she was about to do. "Farah, no!" I cried, but it was too late. Still smiling, she let go of the Dagger and let herself fall the many feet to the hard floor of the treasure hold below. The force of her impact with the floor sent a fortune of gold coins, ruby-encrusted signet rings, and diamond-studded pendants flying away from her, as though she had fallen into a vast golden sea. Her neck stuck out at an odd angle, and she lay still, her fingers still wet with my blood.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

I could not comprehend what had just happened. My mind could not fathom what Farah had just done, or what her supine body lying far beneath me among the mountains of treasure meant. I transferred the Dagger to my other hand, intending to press the button on the hilt that had aided me so many times throughout the last day. Yet I could see through the blood staining the short blade that no sand glowed in the Dagger. It was completely empty. A deep crack ran through the clear, hollow hilt, allowing every grain of sand I had gathered to spill out onto the ground. Blood from the cut on my palm trickled over the crack, turning it into a deadly gash like the one in my heart. And, in the moment when the power of time would have been the most helpful, I could do nothing.

I rose, trembling all over, from the hole through which my heart seemed to have fallen to smash against the uncaring stones so far below. The sand creatures I had slain had risen again and were picking up their weapons again, starting towards me with their horrid scuffling feet and gaping jaws that revealed the glow of sand within their bodies. And as I watched these creatures approach, these monsters that had killed Farah, a helpless rage consumed my whole being, propelling me forward as though the glowing sands had taken hold of me as well. I do not remember slaying the creatures in that small chamber above the Tower of Dawn. I do not remember cutting my way through the hordes of sand creatures that had followed me. I do not remember my descent as I retraced my steps and found my way back to the treasure hold where my world had shattered again. All I remember is standing amidst the piles of meaningless treasure for the second, and final, time.

I stumbled over the mountains of gold, silver, and precious gems till I came to the pile that cushioned the body of the woman I loved. Even in death, she was beautiful, and I thought it only fitting that the hoarded wealth of the richest sultan in the world should be the final resting place of this princess – torn from her homeland, clothed in the garb of a servant girl, yet royalty still.

Yet my heart could not be at peace. I fell at her side and wept over her lifeless, broken body. I was the entire reason she now lay dead, and yet I remembered how she had pardoned me even when I had scorned everything she had given me. I saw now that, though I was a prince and a skilled warrior, I could never have been worthy of her. Bravely had I fought and slain my enemies. Honor and glory were mine. But though I fought until the desert sands themselves were red with blood, I could not bring back the dead.

Suddenly a voice broke through my grief. "The girl is unimportant."

Whirling around, I saw the vizier standing a few paces behind me, gazing at me with a triumphant leer as he leaned on his snake-shaped staff. His blood-red robes and turban were immaculate, untouched by the slightest ounce of sand and dust in all the desolation he had brought about. His age-spotted, gloating face sent a torrent of rage rushing through me that swept away my grief. With a cry, I rushed towards him and knocked the old man to the floor, yearning to wring his wrinkled neck. For though I was to blame for all that had happened, he had been behind my every failure. He was the reason I had unleashed the Sands of Time, tearing away everything I held dear.

The vizier's aged countenance belied his strength, however, and he held his snake staff between us. For all my rage I could not push his arms away. The old Indian took his chance and said through labored breathing, "Give me the Dagger...and I will give you power. Eternal life...will be yours!"

I could smell the stench of his breath, see the malice in his dark eyes, and I leapt back away from him. How could this despicable traitor expect me to believe any of his lies? With a glance over my shoulder as the vizier laboriously rose after me, I saw that I stood very close to the Hourglass. Turning again to the vizier, I drew forth the Dagger; I could see the glint of greed that entered his eyes as soon as they alighted on the thing he had been seeking for so long. "Live forever, while those I loved are dead and I to blame? I choose death."

The vizier's eyes widened as my words sunk in, and he started forward with a cry, but I had already begun to move. Running up the side of a pillar, I kicked off from it to another pillar, then to the top of the Hourglass itself. Once more I stood above the glittering sands, but this time I did not hesitate. Before the vizier could conjure up his black magics again, I plunged the blade of the Dagger of Time into the dome.

Instantly I felt the power of the sands rushing through me with greater force than ever before. I could feel myself moving backwards, retracing the steps I had taken, but only as in a dream. The hilt of the Dagger pressed into my palm as I raced away from the vizier, away from Farah's body, back to the top of the tower, then down, and time soared backwards faster and faster till it seemed a great sandstorm whirled around me. In a flash, I ran back through the entire palace with Farah at my side, through the prison, over the parapets, up towers and down staircases, through the baths, past the menagerie, passing by sand creatures that rose again from my blade as it pulled out of their flesh. I saw my father rise again from my blade, and in a blink of an eye I ran back farther, back to the Hourglass and beyond, across the desert, through the ruined palace of the Maharajah, before my father's army set forth against it.

When at last the rush of time left me, I lay on my back in my tent on the hill in India, fully clothed and unharmed. Nothing in the still night air could tell me this had not been but a dream other than my racing heart and the Dagger still clutched in my hand. I sat up and gazed at its soft glow in the darkness as I struggled to fathom what had just occurred. Here I stood, poised at the point in time before any mistakes had been made. Yet if I did nothing with the lingering memories of what would soon come to pass, these sorrows would play themselves out again. I knew what I must do.

I slipped out of my tent and saw that the night was early still. Sentries stood at the edges of the camp, and I could see the expansive pavilion where my father slept, oblivious to the accursed fate that would soon be his. With a word, I passed a sentry and began to run through the forest towards the Maharajah's palace. The soft rain pattered among the palm trees, falling from misty clouds obscuring the dark Indian sky. Night sounds drifted about like ghostly remains of the past. I ran, pushing aside the great wide leaves of palm trees and kicking up the hard soil in clouds of dust and sand. Sand, sand, always sand. At last I came to the palace, circling around till I found the balcony of the room I sought. Quietly climbing the cool marble pillars, I pushed aside the soft, gauzy curtains that swirled in the warm night breeze, and stepped into a bedchamber wherein lay a woman I knew all too well.

Farah had already woken, perhaps sensing a danger in the air that she could not understand, and stood by one of the windows opposite me, looking out into the night. The room was dimly lit by a single oil lamp, but by its illumination I could see a large bed surrounded by many soft cushions and low tables. When she heard my step on the marble floor behind her, Farah whirled around in alarm and began to back away, but I quickly said, "Do not be afraid. I have only come to return what rightfully belongs to you."

As I drew the Dagger, she clutched the familiar medallion fearfully, relaxing only slightly when I offered the weapon to her, hilt first. I could see as I held out the Dagger that she recognized it at once, and she looked at me with confusion. "The Dagger of Time," she murmured. "But it is locked away within my father's treasure vaults! How-"

Yet I knew a simple explanation would never do justice to all the efforts that had brought me thus far, so I said to her, "Most people think time is like a river that flows swift and sure in one direction. But I have seen the face of time, and I can tell you: They are wrong. Time is an ocean in a storm. Time is a dance, folding back over itself as the steps are repeated again and again and again. The same, yet different each time. Time is a desert, a mountain of sand stretching out to every horizon, endless and always shifting, conforming to the steps you make in it, yet always slipping back and falling into the holes, covering up your tracks until even you cannot remember which direction you came from. You may wonder who I am, and why I say this. Sit down, and I will tell you a tale like none that you have ever heard..."


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty**

The first light of dawn crept across the bedchamber, splashing through the window, seeping across the floor, and rippling against the tasseled cushions arrayed on the floor, where sat a prince and a princess. The prince brought his long tale to a close, his voice hoarse from the many hours his story had taken to tell. The grains of time had slipped through the narrow neck of the hourglass, and this dance of time would soon draw to a close, until the next one began. Soon every grain of redemption would drop down, and the prince could turn the hourglass on its head and start anew. Time, ever fickle and elusive, slipped swiftly away from him, and he knew that they must soon take action if all was not to be lost. "And that is why I have come," he concluded, gesturing emphatically to the woman who had listened enraptured to his tale. "To warn you and your father to arrest this treacherous vizier before he betrays you and brings ruin on us all. His signal is a flaming arrow shot into the air. Prevent him, and my father's army will know the traitor has been unmasked. They _will_ turn back."

Yet before Farah could make a reply of any kind, another man stepped into the room from the balcony. He wore long, blood-red robes and a turban of the same color, and in one gnarled hand he clutched a staff shaped like a snake. The two in the room immediately sprang to their feet in alarm as he advanced towards them, deeply-sunk eyes glittering with malice. "An intriguing story indeed," he said in a soft murmur as though his tongue was as forked as that of his snake staff. "I have a simpler version: A Persian soldier, lusting for glory, stole the Dagger and entered the Maharajah's daughter's chambers, and was slain. By me."

The prince, knowing full well how treacherously powerful this old man could be, immediately snatched up the Dagger from where it lay on a cushion beside him, and drew forth his sword. With a gasp, Farah backed away from both of them, her wide and fearful eyes darting from one to the other.

The vizier grinned mirthlessly, not taking his eyes off the prince for an instant. "Your Majesty, for your own safety, I suggest you flee. I will handle this intruder." He swung his staff towards the prince, who dodged out of the way, and with a small shriek Farah darted behind one of the enormous decorative jars that stood against the wall of her chamber.

The prince circled the vizier at a cautious distance. He remembered well the many battles he had fought against the sand creatures, yet here stood an enemy quite unlike any he had encountered before. While the prince stood poised, ready to attack if he saw the slightest opening, the vizier spun his staff and suddenly there seemed to be five viziers standing all around the prince. With a cry of surprise, the prince lashed out at one, yet his sword seemed to cut through nothing but vapor. Whirling around, he sliced at one figure after another, yet the blade passed through them as though they were no more substantial than a mirage on the desert horizon.

"What sorcery is this?" Farah demanded tremulously from her hiding place. "Stop this at once!"

"My Lady." The vizier's echoing voice seemed to come from all directions at once, and the prince spun around, slashing at thin air. "He came here to abduct you. Surely you do not believe him?"

"He _will_ betray you!" the prince cried desperately, lunging towards one image that seemed more substantial than the rest, yet faded away like mist on a hot morning as soon as his sword touched it. "All will happen as I have foretold!"

"How inventive." The vizier's voice echoed all around the room again, and then the prince felt a sharp blow on the back of his head from what felt like a stick of wood. "Do not forget, he is a Persian soldier."

"What I told you is no story," the prince said desperately, head aching as he whirled about to face the vizier that was not there. "It happened. I mean...it _will_ happen!" When the staff jabbed at his side, he finally pressed the button on the Dagger to turn back time. As the words he had shouted rushed back into his mouth, he saw the blurred figure of the vizier moving about him, his movements obscured by the images he created. The prince watched to see where the vizier would be, and the instant he let time return to its usual flow, he struck the place he had seen.

Instantly the false images of the vizier faded away, and the real man stood livid before him. "Your exertions are most amusing," he said with a savage grin, and began to whirl his staff again. The prince hastily attacked, keeping his blade moving so swiftly that the vizier was forced to retreat and defend himself as well as he could with his staff.

"Let him be brought before my father," Farah called from her hiding place. "He will judge." When the vizier's only response was to move his staff faster in an attempt to catch the prince off-guard, she cried in surprise, "Vizier! I have commanded you to stop. Do you disobey?"

"I have taken orders long enough," the vizier snarled, his breathing loud and haggard, "from a senile fool and a sniveling brat!" Then, as he whirled his staff to knock the prince's sword away, he cried an incantation, and instantly the prince felt the effects of the magic.

While before he had moved with the graceful speed of one well-trained in battle, suddenly the prince's limbs felt heavy and clumsy, and every move was as slow as though he was completely submerged in water, or sinking into deep sand. The vizier easily avoided or knocked aside any attempted attacks the prince made and darted about, striking him with the snake head of his staff, though he seemed wary of coming too close. As the prince struggled to face these attacks, he slowly realized that with all the stinging, bruising strikes the vizier made against him, he was attempting to cause his arms to tire and his weapons to fall from his hands. When he was defenseless, then he could strike like a cobra coiled and poised with fangs bared.

As the prince fought fruitlessly against the bonds of time that held him, the vizier taunted him triumphantly. "Your father was a great warrior in his youth," he panted, "or so he would have the world believe. A pity his son does not take after him." Then a malicious smile twisted his features as he swung around in front of the prince to strike the young man's stomach. "Then again, perhaps father and son _are_ alike. It would appear that both share a taste for easy plunder." He drew back a pace to catch his breath after his constant onslaught.

Rage rose within the prince to hear his father slighted so. Shahraman had only agreed to plunder the Maharajah's palace because the vizier had assured him it would be easy for his army to undertake. Yet the vizier had only wanted the Persian king to win so that he could draw near to the Sands of Time and attain power himself. The prince remembered all too well how he had been forced to fight against his own father and suck him into the Dagger he still held in his hand. Pushing those thoughts aside, for the morning had just dawned and his father was still alive, the prince retorted, "You waste your breath. What little you possess." It seemed that while his arms moved slowly, his lips were unhindered.

"You perceive my malady," the vizier said with an unpleasant leer, leaning on his staff. "Consumption that robs me of the youth that you so heedlessly squander. Do you really think you could defeat me?"

Even as the words left his mouth, the prince felt the dark spell lifting from his limbs, and as the vizier was struck with a coughing fit he could not contain, the prince took his chance. Darting forward, he slashed his sword towards the vizier's head, intending to sever it in one fell stroke. Yet as soon as the metal met flesh, the vizier seemed to blink out of all existence, and when the prince whirled around he saw the man standing at the other end of the room, already muttering another incantation. "Careful!" the prince cried mockingly, racing towards him. "Don't tire yourself!"

Before he had run even halfway across the richly-adorned room, the curtains at the balcony whipped around like frenzied spirits as the wind picked up and began to howl through the room. The prince knew the danger of this unnatural wind, and though he strove against it with all his might, it pushed him inexorably back. Using the only hope he had left, he tossed the Dagger from one hand to the other and felt for one final time the rush of time filling all his limbs with power. He ran faster than any mortal could, his speed overcoming the wind pressing him back. The vizier's eyes widened with fear, but before he could react the prince's sword thrust forward and the vizier fell through the doorway to the balcony.

The wind instantly died down, and the rush of time seeped out of the prince's body as he stepped through the curtains to stand over his fallen enemy. The vizier still lived, yet he coughed more than ever and blood darkened the red of his robes. The prince strode towards him, confident that at last this evil man had been defeated. Yet as soon as he came near, the vizier suddenly sprang up with a last burst of desperate strength, and whipping his staff around knocked the startled prince to the ground. The vizier knelt on the prince's chest, pressing his staff hard into the prince's neck and forcing the young man to drop his weapons as he struggled to breathe.

"So be it," the vizier said, breathing raggedly as the stain on his chest widened. "How will the Maharajah feel when he finds his only daughter slain by the son of his enemy?" When the prince ceased his frenzied attempts to throw him off and stared at him in shock, the vizier sneered down at him. "Do you have any last words you wish me to communicate to the princess...before I kill her? Words of love, perhaps?"

Savage delight curled around the vizier's words as the prince's heart turned cold with terror. Yet before he could make any protest or redouble his efforts to break free, the vizier suddenly let out a strangled cry and froze. He half-turned, letting his staff fall from slack fingers, and the prince saw an arrow protruding from the old man's back. The vizier murmured in a dying whisper, "I could have been...immortal..." Then he slumped to the side and lay still, never to rise again.

The prince gingerly rose and looked to the princess stepping out onto the balcony as well. She held her bow in her hands, a fresh arrow nocked to the string. Her dark eyes were wide with shock at everything that had just happened in her own bedchamber. Doubtless she would be shaken from this frightening betrayal of trust, and would take some time to recover. The prince gazed down at his enemy and let out a breath of relief. Bending down, he picked up his sword and sheathed it for what he hoped would be the last time, but he held the Dagger in his hand. "Thank you," he murmured to his rescuer.

Farah slowly let her bow and arrow slip through her fingers and fall clattering onto the floor. She stared down at the old man, at the blood staining her balcony and pooling around the arrow her own hands had fired. "Then it's true," she murmured softly. "He _was_ a traitor."

The prince stepped forward and held out the Dagger to her, but she only stared at it as though she could not believe it was before her and not in her father's treasure hold. "Take this," the prince urged her, eager to be rid of it at last. It had enabled him to survive many harrowing hours in the sultan's palace, yet it had also been the reason for much grief. "Return it to your father's treasure hold. Guard it well. But don't cut yourself," he added with a fond smile.

Farah raised her eyes to the prince's face, and the newly-risen sun glistened on her smooth cheek. Every feature was well-known and dear to him, and as they stood over the body of their enemy and held victory in their hands, she seemed to glow with more beauty than the sun itself. "I owe you thanks," the princess said with the slightest of smiles. "But why did you invent such a fantastic story? Do you think me a child, that I would believe such nonsense?"

And the prince could contain himself no longer. He had journeyed with this woman, fought alongside her, shared in her griefs and fears and hopes, betrayed her, been forgiven, and watched her die while he stood helplessly by. The mere sight of her living and breathing in the morning air was enough to make his heart swell within him. Heeding nothing she had just said, he pulled her to him and laid a kiss upon her lips, unable to articulate his feelings or to bear the knowledge that she bore no memory of the time they had spent together.

With an indignant sound, Farah wriggled free of his grasp and pushed him away. Her cheeks burned with anger and embarrassment. "I said I owe you thanks," she snapped. "You presume too much."

The prince realized even as they broke away that he had made a mistake. If she did not believe any of his tale, she would surely think him the most presumptuous young man to climb into her bedchamber at night and tell her a tale of love. He did not wish for her to remember as well that he had taken any liberties with her. Yet he still held the Dagger of Time, the boon of all who wished to amend their mistakes. Pressing the button on the hilt of the Dagger, he let time flow back till before he had moved towards her.

"...such a fantastic story?" Farah was saying. "Do you think me a child, that I would believe such nonsense? Surely there could have been a better way to inform me of the vizier's treachery. You are too reckless."

The prince sighed and hesitated, considering how best to reply. At last he nodded with a sinking of his heart and said with a sad smile, "You're right. No doubt one of my many flaws."

Farah frowned. "Please don't mock me, prince."

The prince chuckled. "Oh, I hardly think we know each other well enough for that, princess." He pressed the Dagger into her hands. "But I look forward to the day that we do." With that, he turned to go, leaving her stunned behind him. He had lingered long enough, and soon he would be missed at the camp. It was likely he would never see Farah again, not unless by some miracle the rift between their kingdoms could be healed, and even then there was no guarantee that Farah would ever return his love, when she remembered none of the things he had recounted to her. At least the prince could leave India knowing that he had averted a grave danger. He leapt from the balcony railing to a palm tree that stood close by.

"Wait!" Farah cried, rushing to the railing as he landed among the uppermost branches of the tree, shaking moisture off the broad leaves. He paused and looked back at her. She held the Dagger in her hand, and leaned out towards him. "I don't even know your name."

The prince looked at her confused expression and gave her a wry smile. Perhaps fate would smile upon them once more. Just before sliding to the ground to slip back into his camp of war, he said with a wink, "Just call me...Kakolukiyah."

**THE END**


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